


Afire

by silverteaspoon



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Be Careful What You Wish For, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Multi, Non-Graphic Violence, Time Travel, Warring States Period (Naruto)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26955046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverteaspoon/pseuds/silverteaspoon
Summary: "Our crest is the flame Hinata-hime. It signifies life—the fire in our souls. Make sure that someday, you'll find someone who'll keep your flame burning."
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Izuna, Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama/Uzumaki Mito, Uchiha Madara/Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Izuna
Comments: 70
Kudos: 132





	1. Infinite Tsukuyomi 2.0

**Author's Note:**

> A/N 1: Naruto isn't mine. If it were, I wouldn't be here writing fanfiction. Lols.
> 
> A/N 2: English isn't my first language so apologies in advance for any spelling/grammar/word choice mistakes. I promise, I'm doing my best. If anyone is triggered by anything in this work of fiction, I would greatly appreciate if you'd rather just stop and skip to the next story. Thanks!

It feels wicked and her mind says it’s oh so very _wrong_.

But it feels so good, she feels so _good_ —like she’s found paradise after a long, long journey—and her body says it’s oh so very _right_.

If her father and all the old, decrepit men and women of the Hyuuga Council can see her now, they’ll no doubt call her a wanton whore, put the curse seal on her forehead and activate it to teach her a harsh lesson.

But what does it matter? Hells, why is she even thinking of those stupid, old men? She’s here and they’re not and…

“Oh _kami_!” Hinata moans, her back arches and she grips the head of the man sucking the sensitive peak of her breast while two strong calloused hands spread her quivering thighs and a face is buried against her sex.

The mouth on her breast nips then rolls her nipple with a slightly rough, wet tongue before it is removed and replaced with a squeezing calloused hand. The handsome face the limb belongs to lifts and she sees dark, dark eyes and a grin on a sensual mouth.

“ _Kami_ , hm? I don’t mind being called god, _Hime_ , but I’d like to hear my name more. I’m sure big brother agrees.”

The man between her legs stops his pleasurable ministrations and chuckles deep, sending puffs of warm, moist air to her sensitive flesh, causing her to shiver deliciously and want for more. When she looks down to voice her protest at being denied, she flushes when her lavender-gray eyes meet hungry blood red ones.

“Yes, Little Moon. I want my name in your mouth while I pleasure you with mine,” the man says with a devastating smirk before lowering his head once more.

“Please! Please!” she mewls—begs—one hand reaching down to clutch at the dark, long hair spilled all over her trembling stomach. To push or pull? She can't decide.

“Names, hime,” the man kneading her chest says in a reprimanding voice before using his thumb and forefinger to slowly twist a swollen nipple.

Hinata bites her lower lip hard to stem the embarrassing sounds coming out of her mouth but the cruel, greedy man supping between her thighs sucks her hard, making her close her eyes and explode to tiny pieces, tumbling down the dark abyss.

“Madara!”

* * *

She blearily opened her eyes and blinked confusedly then panicked when her mind caught up to the fact that she’s bound to a chair using some thick chains and trapped inside an unfamiliar room.

Fearing for the unknown but certainly dangerous situation she’s found herself in, she twisted and turned and yanked at the chains with all her might only hurting herself in the process for they refused to budge. Even the chair refused to move—it was made of iron and the legs were attached to the floor.

Her charka felt very low but she still activated her _byakugan_ to see if there are other ways to get rid of the chains only to find out that the part of it on her back had some seals attached that she couldn’t reach. 

She then directed her gaze outwards—to have a look at the world outside and find out more about her current location and her abductors and saw…

A man who should be dead, walking like he’s the king of the world, approaching the room serving as her prison.

* * *

“Release!” the Hyuuga woman whispered as soon as he opened the door to her cell, making him raise a brow and pause at the threshold.

She slowly opened her eyes and after a quick glance at his face, shut them hurriedly once more. “Release! Release!” she muttered the words desperately like a mantra.

Feeling amused at the absurd scene, he smirked and addressed the woman. “Is the _byakugan_ so inferior that it cannot discern reality from illusion?”

The woman opened her eyes but kept her gaze leveled to his chest, fear and disbelief clear on her expressive face.

“You’re dead. You died years ago,” she said, voice slightly shaking with a hysterical edge to it, “You died. All this can’t be real. You’re not real and this must be another _genjutsu_.”

He felt some strange current raced down his spine and with every word uttered, all the mirth at the woman’s earlier actions left him. Feeling annoyed now, especially at being told he’s supposed to be dead and being called an illusion, he gritted his teeth then asked, “Say what now, Hyuuga?”

The woman ignored him, closed her eyes again and uttered Release once more.

Madara scowled. _Why would a Hyuuga think I’m dead? I, the great Uchiha Madara, dead? Was she perhaps stark raving mad? An illness in the head?_

He briefly considered the thought but quickly dismissed it soon after. If she was indeed mad, the Hyuuga Clan would’ve made sure to have her sealed to protect the secrets of their bloodline. And with her beautiful face and hmm…voluptuous body (which he was surprised to have felt under her thick, ugly clothes), she would’ve been married to some pompous man, kept under tight lock and key, with many guards stationed at her door to ensure she never escaped.

But the woman before him had a clean forehead, no seal, which meant she was from the Main Branch. Not only that, she was also kunoichi—the first Hyuuga kunoichi he’s ever met.

It had been a surprise when he first found her unconscious close to the Uchiha territory. The Hyuuga were known for keeping their women engage only in feminine pursuits. It’s probably another of their many security measures to protect their oh so precious _byakugan_. After all, even a sealed woman, when caught by truly vile men, can be kept and turned into a broodmare for offspring with the coveted _doujutsu_.

But the woman he found carried ninja tools on her person—tools like _shuriken_ , _kunai_ , ninja wires and exploding tags. She also carried rolls of bandages and small vials of what looked like medicines.

He also took note that her body, despite her petite form, spoke of training. She had muscles—not so much but enough to prove she knows how to fight. Most tellingly, her hands had little marks from handling sharp objects and her fingertips had callouses—something he’s aware was common among those who practiced the Hyuuga’s Gentle Fist style.

With the evidences of her being trained for combat, he suspected then that she was a spy trying to get secrets from his clan and decided to take her with him as his captive.

He thought of interrogating her, of turning the tables around and extracting Hyuuga secrets that would benefit his clan instead. He didn’t think it would come to this bizarre situation—the woman telling him he’s supposed to be dead. That he died years ago.

Feeling annoyance and needing to have his questions answered, he commanded harshly, “Stop it. Cease your ridiculous action. You’re not in a _genjutsu_ , you foolish woman.”

She only shook her head and insisted, “It is a _genjutsu_. I know it. Another Infinite Tsukuyomi. You died. You finally died for good in the Fourth Shinobi World War.”

Madara stood stock-still once more, mind furiously whirling from the words he heard.

_Infinite Tsukuyomi? Finally died for good? Fourth Shinobi World War?!_

_Just what in the world was the Hyuuga talking about?_


	2. Puzzles and Lost Dreams

The man between her legs lifts himself to a kneeling position, making his long spiky hair tumble down his strong arms and chiseled torso.

Uchiha Madara looks the perfect image of a warrior and she can’t tear her eyes off him.

“How was the trip to heaven, _Little Moon_?” he asks before wiping his wet chin and licking his palm and fingers. All the while he looks at her with scorching eyes, making her breathless.

When she fails to respond, he laughs, voice deep and sensual. Then, he reaches for her legs, hands sliding up her thighs and drags her flush against him before slowly rolling his hips. The movement makes her breath hitch and she feels liquid heat burn in her core once more.

“You like that hm? Tell me what else you like, love,” he says before clutching a hip harder, his fingers digging on her soft flesh. His other hand moves down and a thumb starts to play with her bud.

“Madara!” She keens and her back bends like a bow.

It feels so good. She feels delirious and all she can do is move with him, roll her hips with him to get more of the feeling, get more of the pleasure.

“Brother, don’t be greedy. Isn’t it my turn now?”

Madara grunts and gives a show of rolling his neck and flexing his biceps and abs, “Foreplay, Izuna, ever heard of it? I’m not done—far from it.”

Feeling mortified at being spoken about while she lay naked, spread and writhing underneath them, she mutters a protest, “I’m still here, you know. Stop talking as if I’m a toy.”

They both chuckle and look at her with amused, heated eyes.

“But of course you are. And what fun it is to play with you, _Little Moon_ ,” Madara says, expression smug. The bastard.

Izuna bends his head to hers and cups her face with a hand before kissing her. Slow and chaste at first—his lips gently moving against hers, his teeth softly nipping. And when she gasps after a particularly delightful roll from Madara, it becomes hotter, more intense—Izuna’s tongue tangling with hers, exploring the depths of her mouth until she’s out of breath.

“Don’t listen to the prick, _Hime_ ,” he murmurs against her mouth after, “You’re a goddess and we are but your ardent worshippers. I can show you just how zealous a worshipper I am now, if you want. I’ll even let you ride me to oblivion, if you want” he says, his mouth forming a seductive grin while touching her swollen bottom lip with a thumb roughened from years of swordsmanship.

***

His sword securely tucked at his side, Izuna swiftly took the last remaining steps to his older brother’s study and opened the door without preamble. He rolled his eyes when he saw that Madara chose to ignore his entrance and remained serious and hard at work.

He had been on a long and dangerous mission in the Land of Wind and has just arrived past midnight so the news that there’s a Hyuuga captive within Uchiha territory had been a surprise when he heard of it while eating breakfast not more than half an hour before.

Aside from a few skirmishes during missions, they of the Uchiha Clan never really dealt with the Hyuugas that much so he was very curious to know the reason behind the captivity. Deciding to do just that, he pounced at his stick-in-the-mud brother.

“Nii-sama, I heard you have a Hyuuga in your possession—a female. Is our financial situation so dire we’re now resorting to abducting women? Or are we now adding kidnap-for-ransom to the clan’s business and I wasn’t just informed yet?” he asked after ceremoniously plopping himself down on the tatami mat in front of the _chabudai_ where his brother was reading some no-doubt boring report.

Madara paused in reading a scroll detailing the clan’s finances and looked at his impertinent brother with a glare, “I didn’t kidnap her. I don’t kidnap women. I found her trespassing in our territory. With those Hyuuga eyes, she’s probably a spy. So I took her as my captive.”

“Ohhh, captiiive. Riiight. Did you tie her up yourself with ropes or did you use chains? Did you…hmmm, torture her for information? How did it go?” Izuna asked while suggestively waggling his brows, taking the opportunity to get a rise out of his brother.

Madara’s eyebrow visibly twitched in annoyance at the questions. “I am busy Izuna. Leave me alone or I’ll drown you in the pond and leave you floating with the fishes until your ugly face rots.”

Izuna sniggered at both the insult and the threat. “That’s the best you can come up with today? And who’re you calling ugly? I’ll have you know all the girls tell me I’m the most handsome Uchiha. More handsome than even you, brother.”

“Tch. Whatever. Like I said, I’m busy. Go away.”

“And here I thought you’d be less uptight with a beautiful woman in the palm of your filthy hands,” Izuna remarked with an unrepentant grin.

Why his brother always saw the need to poke fun at him, Madara will never understand. One thing’s for sure though—he always found it an aggravating habit.

“Enough with the stupid insinuations already. I have matters to see to. If you’re not going to be of any help, then go pester someone else. ”

“I will on one condition—let me see your Hyuuga first. I hear she’s a beauty.”

Madara scoffed. “It’s wasted on her. She’s a bit touched in the head.”

Izuna leaned forward, face filled with interest. “Oh? How so? Have you already interrogated her?”

“Not yet. I am…hn…I have not decided yet how to go about it.”

Which was the truth. He thought of using his mangekyou sharingan and trapping her in a _genjutsu_ but…the woman already believes she’s in a _genjutsu_. What if another _genjutsu_ drove her to even further madness?

Also, the words she said about his death was another reason that stayed his hand. It’s not that he’s afraid. (Him, afraid? Tch! He’s Uchiha Madara and he is not afraid of anything). The only reason he hadn’t conducted a full-on interrogation was because the Hyuuga’s words brought him such a strange feeling. Like if he dug deeper, he might just find himself falling down a dark, bottomless hole.

Izuna’s relaxed expression disappeared and he asked with a frown, “Undecided? This isn’t you brother. Did something happen? Is it about her having loose screws?”

“Hn. She…said some things that didn’t really make sense and caught me off guard.”

“Caught you off guard,” his younger brother parroted then queried with a raised brow, “You? How?”

Madara finally dropped the scroll he was holding and leaned back, using a hand as support. Lowering his voice to keep the details of their conversation just between them, he began to share the odd words the Hyuuga said to him.

“She said I should be dead. That I died years ago. She also mentioned strange things…things like Infinite _Tsukuyomi_ and Fourth Shinobi World War.”

Izuna’s spine straightened and his dark eyes sharpened dangerously, “You, dead? Tsukuyomi? Fourth Shinobi World War?”

“Don’t ask me. I have no idea either but…A shinobi world war. That one at least seems to mean exactly what the words are supposed to mean. Though for the life of me, I can’t make heads or tails of it. I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday and all the theories that came to mind were all so preposterous.”

“Like what theories?”

“Tch, if I shared them with you, I’m certain you’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

“No. C’mon tell me. I swear I won’t laugh Nii-sama—no matter how stupid they or _you_ sound.”

Madara reached for a scroll and swiftly whacked his brother on the head, “You think me a fool? I haven’t even said a thing and you’re already making fun of me.”

Izuna stopped holding back and finally let go of his snickers. “Let me guess. You thought of time travel?”

“Want me to drown you with the fishes now?”

Izuna laughed some more. “You did, didn’t you?”

Madara scowled at his brother’s antics. “Does word of my supposed death sound that funny to you?”

Izuna immediately shut up then turned serious. “Forgive me brother, my jest was in poor taste. A word of your supposed death is indeed unusual and worrying. We should go and interrogate this Hyuuga woman, Nii-sama. The information she holds could turn out to be of far graver importance, especially to you and the clan.”

***

Hearing voices and feeling strong, aggressive chakra signatures outside of her prison door, Hinata activated her byakugan and saw that Uchiha Madara had come to visit her once more. To her utter surprise though, he had someone familiar with him.

_Uchiha Sasuke?!_

That made her mind churn and spin. Why was the apparently not so last Uchiha with Madara? Had he decided to turn traitor to Konoha once more?

The thought disturbed her greatly. For she knew just how strong the last Uchiha was and if he had indeed decided to cast his lot with the madman…

The cell door opened and she could not help but immediately lock eyes with her former classmate. It’s foolish, she knew, but she’s just unable to keep the feeling of betrayal hidden. “Uchiha Sasuke-san.”

The two men paused for a moment then entered the room. Madara weirdly chose to simply lean on the wall near the entrance and observe while Uchiha Sasuke shortened the distance between them, stopped a few feet and stared at her.

“You know me Hyuuga? Who are you?” he asked.

Hinata’s eyebrows furrowed, a bit offended the Uchiha has forgotten her. Then again, perhaps all the trials he’s been through has messed up his head and caused him to lose some memories? She did hear Orochimaru was a very disgusting individual, especially when it came to his experiments and Uchiha Sasuke spent years with him so...hmmm. Yes, it would be impolite to hold it against him.

“I’m Hinata and of course I know you Sasuke-san. Though we were never close, we did go to the same academy and had classes together for several years. What are you doing here with Madara of all people? What of your allegiance to _Konoha_?” she asked with a bit of anger leaking in her voice.

Yes, those are the most important questions right now. After everything they’ve all gone through during the war, after all the horrors, the deaths and the devastation, after Sakura’s and Naruto’s faith in him, after his journey to redemption—she could not believe that the Uchiha was back to doing…shitty things again.

Izuna stared at the woman in front of him and refrained from blinking to catch all the expressions that went through her face and her lavender-gray eyes. Though she called him by another name, one he didn’t recognize, she didn’t look nor sound mad to him. She looked like she really knew and believed what she’s talking about.

“ _Konoha_. What is _Konoha_ , Hinata-san? Where is it?” he asked, wanting to know more.

Hinata stiffened at the question and scrutinized the man in front of her more closely, keeping in mind to avoid his eyes.

Why would he ask her what and where _Konoha_ was? Was he perhaps another illusion? Was she right in believing that she was indeed in a powerful _genjutsu_ , one she couldn’t get herself out of? But he really did look like Uchiha Sasuke…

“Who…who are you? Are you another illusion?” she asked warily.

“Hinata-san, let me be clear on our roles here. We ask the questions and you play your part by giving us the answers we seek. Don’t forget you are the captive and we your captors,” Sasuke look-alike ordered with a recognizable threat to his tone.

Hinata sat up straighter. Though her gaze was lowered to avoid meeting any active _sharingan_ eye, she clenched her jaws and tightened her lips in defiance.

 _No. Never. Genjutsu_ or not, they’ll not get information about _Konoha_ from her.

***

_Cold and regal—the famous Hyuuga demeanor._

Madara smirked at the display. It was a bit of a surprise to see it on the young woman, especially when her face and eyes seemed to be made and was used to show expressions.

The woman’s interaction with his brother had been interesting, no matter how short it actually was and how many more confusing details he got. Three things stood out though and his utterly preposterous theory was looking to be more and more…a possibility.

First was that she called his brother _Uchiha Sasuke_ which means she knows another Uchiha and had mistaken Izuna to be that person. There’s no one named _Sasuke_ in the Clan though. Not in the past that he could recall.

Second was the word _Academy_. What she said about going to this same _Academy_ and having the same _Classes_ as the unknown _Uchiha Sasuke_ brought a memory from years ago to the forefront of his mind.

 _Hashirama_ _and his dreams. Their dreams from long ago. Dreams that never became reality._

His once friend had talked about making peace among shinobi clans and creating a village where they could all live in harmony and building schools where children can learn, be trained and become more equipped instead of just going out on missions unprepared and wasting their lives by being killed so young.

And last but certainly not the least was her questioning this unknown Uchiha Sasuke’s _Allegiance_ to _Konoha_. Gut feeling told him that Konoha was either an organization or a place. Or both.

_Konoha—Leaf._

His mind, strangely enough, could not help but go back to that mountain overlooking the vast, verdant forest where he and Hashirama dreamed of starting their village.

It sounds mad. It seems utterly impossible but there’s no other explanation he could think of.

Could it be?

He’ll find out. He will.


	3. A New Perspective

One moment she’s moaning and arching her back and looking blearily up at the ceiling, the next she’s rolled to her stomach and looking dazedly down on the wrinkled sheets. Then Madara grips her sides and easily hauls her to her knees and sits her on his lap, his hard length pressed between her folds.

She feels him plaster his large, heated body on her back before she feels his hot mouth on her ear, biting and licking and whispering, “Fuck love, I need to fuck you now. Need to be deep inside you. Need to feel you wrapped tight around my cock.”

“Yes, yes,” she eagerly agrees, back arching at him.

He spreads her legs with his. One large hand holds her hip tight and the other goes down to line himself up and then, he’s slowly slipping inside her. The feeling is so good she can’t help but close her eyes, bite her lip and clench hard around him.

“Fuck! Fuck!” he groans at her neck while going deeper and deeper until she’s _full_ of him. “So tight, Little Moon. And so wet. You feel so good around my cock.”

More filthy words leave his mouth as he moves slowly first then faster, harder. Afraid of toppling and breaking their connection, she clutches the wrist of the hand gripping her hip tight and lifts her other arm to clutch at his head or nape or hair to anchor herself.

“Beautiful. Just beautiful. You’re made for fucking Hime,” she hears Izuna say, making her open her heavy eyes.

She sees him kneeling in front of her, eyes turned blood red with the tomoes slowly spinning—the sight enough to add to her high. He leans forward and hungrily catches the hardened nipple of a bouncing breast with his mouth. One hand plays with the other breast while the other moves down, down, down and plays with her bud.

“Please! Please Izuna!” She whimpers, voice hoarse now from all the screaming she did before. She lifts her other arm to embrace him, finding purchase while clawing at his back.

“Please what Hime?” Izuna asks, his hand squeezing her breast harder, his thumb rubbing her faster. “Fuck, she’s so wet. She’s dripping Nii-sama.”

“Of course she is,” Madara laughs lowly, the sound deep from his chest and divine to her ears.

“Please…I can’t…I’m…ahhh…” she trails off, breathless. Deeper, more frenzied thrusts from the beast of a man behind her makes her writhe and shudder. Tighter, smaller circles on her bud from the thumb of the man in front of her makes her wetter.

“Cumming, love? Do it. Cum on my cock. I want to feel you cum on my cock,” Madara groans before biting at the juncture of her neck. Izuna leans forward and sucks at her collarbone.

The pain and pleasure is too much. Between the two of them playing her body like a fiddle, she feels like flying and falling at the same time.

“Do it. Cum. Now!” Madara commands, thrusting so deep inside her it almost hurt. But it’s still so good.

She hears herself wail loudly and does as she’s ordered—falling and drowning in the stormy sea of pleasure.

* * *

Hinata lifted herself up from the deep tub of warm water, a sigh of contentment leaving her mouth.

Illusion or not, the hot bath brought her great satisfaction. She felt better, cleaner. More human.

The Uchiha Madara (Genjutsu, she still believed) and Uchiha Izuna, his brother (She didn’t know Madara had a brother. Was it normal to create an illusion and call it your brother?) who’s also Sasuke’s doppelganger, finally took pity on her and freed her from her iron chair and chains.

But first, they explained to her the rules of her captivity.

 _We’re men, Hyuuga Hinata-san, not animals,_ the Uchiha Madara illusion said. _And contrary to rumors spread by our enemies—the Senju most likely, the bastard Tobirama specifically—we do have manners and know how to properly treat a lady from a respected shinobi clan such as yourself. You’ll not be chained anymore. You’ll be able to move on your own._

 _But don’t abuse our generosity,_ he added _. If you do, the consequences will be dire. You don’t want to know what they are._ A raised eyebrow. _Do you?_

 _If you indeed know how to treat a lady from a respected clan, why am I labeled a captive in the first place?_ Was what she wanted to ask. But what could she do against Uchiha Madara? _Nothing_. At least nothing _yet_. So she simply nodded her head in agreement.

_You are permitted to move around but only within the Main House and only with us as your guards or with someone we trust and assign to be your companion. Failure to comply with this will automatically mean it is back to the cell and chains for you. Do you understand?_

Of course she understood. She always tried to be kind and preferred peace and quiet and that may have led others to view her as weak but she’s not an idiot. So, another obedient nod.

 _You’ll be provided with a few clothing. You can take baths, but only with a guard standing outside the door._ Uchiha Izuna, the Sasuke copycat said next. _You’ll take your meals with us, Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Skip them and go hungry, that’s your choice. Now, I believe you haven’t had a meal since yesterday. Eat._

He then pushed the small tray laden with a simple meal of rice, fish, miso soup, a cup and a small pot of tea in front of her.

Food, water, clothes and baths.

What relief! How pitiful and disgraceful would it be if she, the former heiress of the noble Hyuuga Clan, died of starvation inside an illusion? Worse, what if she died starving _and_ smelling like one of the lowly, unwashed beggars in the dirty streets of the capital of Hi no Kuni?

Hinata politely gave her captors her thanks and, with stomach clenching from hunger, slowly began to eat, all the while mindful of the two pairs of dark eyes watching her like hawks.

Plan for an escape. That’s what she’ll need to do. Then again, how do you escape an illusion that seemed so real?

Hinata wanted to be strong, to be resolute. But everywhere she looked, everything seemed so real. And she could not help but feel uncertainty creep in the corners of her mind.

* * *

“Are you certain of this Nii-sama?” Izuna asked while playing with a kunai, twirling it over and over again using his forefinger. “Is it really wise to have this Hyuuga free within our halls? You do remember she has the byakugan.”

Madara scoffed, “Tch, no need to remind me brother. So what if she has the byakugan?”

“Well, she’s also a kunoichi,” Izuna pointed out, “Who’s to say she won’t use her eyes to steal information and her skills to assassinate you or anyone from the clan?”

“I think I’ve seen enough to know that this woman, despite being a trained kunoichi, will not try to kill me. She’s afraid of me, brother, I see it in her eyes. She knows the difference in our strengths and skills. She’s also in the heart of Uchiha territory, she won’t make an attempt. But she’ll definitely try an escape. Which is fine. That’s exactly what I want her to do. Wherever she goes, I am sure she’ll look for this Konoha and we will know more,” Madara declared confidently.

“Ah! Now I see it,” Izuna said with a smirk, “A trap.”

“Hn. She’s got information I want. Information, I suspect that will greatly impact our lives. I don’t want to push and break her and lose access to whatever secrets she’s got. I want her to give it to me willingly.”

“The time travel theory huh?” Izuna’s lips quirked up but he looked more serious this time. He thought it ridiculous at first but after meeting the Hyuuga, after hearing her speak, he could not help but think his brother’s theory may actually have a chance.

* * *

“Is the food not to your liking?” Madara asked after she put down her chopsticks.

“It’s…It’s very good, Uchiha-sama. Thank you for the meal,” Hinata answered softly, looking down at her empty plate, afraid to meet the intense, dark eyes that constantly seemed to watch her every move.

“Then why don’t you have some more? There’s plenty more and you ate very little. You’re our guest. I wouldn’t want you to get sick because you’re not eating properly.”

Not wanting to cause any offense to the man, she nodded and picked up her chopsticks once more and continued eating, surreptitiously looking at him from under her lashes from time to time to observe his face.

The Uchiha Madara she knew from the Fourth Shinobi World War was…a very complicated figure. Not truly inherently evil from what she came to know in the end but more like a deluded madman—one who got lost in the sea of tragedies he experienced and sought to resolve the problems of the world by turning away from reality, choosing instead an illusion of a peaceful, happy world and in the process, ended countless of lives and caused much suffering to others.

But now, here she was, sitting in front of him, dining with him, watching him act like a true proper Clan Head instead of the terror he was during the war, watching him act like a normal human being, a perfectly normal man. And she could not quite believe it still. It overwhelmed her mind—seeing the madman acting so civilly for days now.

She’s lived as a captive in the Uchiha Main House for five days now and every day it’s almost the same boring routine. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner. A turn in the beautiful Uchiha gardens in the morning and in the afternoon. Quiet moments just reading some boring ancient book of poetry or work of fiction, sometimes history of some shinobi clan while in the presence of the Uchiha Clan Head and sometimes his brother.

As a Hyuuga and a kunoichi specialized in tracking and intel gathering, she’s now come to know many things about him. And it boggled her mind. The more time she spent with him, the harder she found it to reconcile what she’s seeing and what she knew about him.

He’s surprisingly…not all that bad. He could be prideful, demanding and temperamental. He’s also prone to burst in anger especially when faced with incompetent subordinates. But some of his attributes are pretty decent, admirable even.

For one, he’s a good Clan Head. This she’s witnessed during the long hours he would spend working on his study table reading scrolls detailing clan reports.

He showed fairness by ensuring proper wages are given to those who took missions. He showed consideration by providing financial support for those who were out of commission due to injury or sickness. He showed compassion by setting aside assistance for orphans or families who had lost a member. He showed care by setting aside money not just for munitions but also for food, medicines, clothes and many other things to be given to those in need.

He’s a very good brother. Yes there were times when she would see him get competitive and irritable with his sibling—which in fairness only happened when said sibling poked fun at him—but she could see there is tremendous respect and a very deep bond between the two.

As a man, he seemed very self-assured, confident and disciplined and brutally honest. He’s very sensitive and highly observant of his surroundings. So far, aside from her captivity and the first day in the cell, he had treated her with civility, not once causing her harm in anyway. He's polite in his mannerisms and showed care in small ways.

And it’s all messing with her head. She didn’t understand why the one who was supposed to be the deluded madman was acting like the sane person while she’s feeling like she’s losing her mind.

It’s bad. She needed to plan her escape and soon. She needed to find a way to get out before she replaced him and became the deluded, mad one.


	4. An Escape and A Chase

Flat on her stomach, eyes closed and still panting from her intense release, she feels Izuna press kisses to the curve of her left shoulder while he runs his fingers through her long hair.

Madara, who’s on her other side, gets up for a while then returns and next, she feels him gently run a damp cloth on her sweaty back then between her thighs.

“Are you alright?” he asks, voice deep and relaxed and so nice to her ears.

“Yes,” she whispers in a hoarse voice before swallowing then wincing at the parched feeling in her throat. She’s not complaining, far from it—but the screaming and the orgasms have certainly wrung her dry.

She hears Izuna laugh before he too gets up and leaves the room. “I bring offering,” he announces when he returns, voice smug and jovial at the same time.

She uses a hand to twist her body and sees him deftly balancing a tray with a pitcher of water, a cup and some fruit and feels a smile tug at her lips at the adorably domestic look he presents.

He approaches the low table on the other side of the room and sets the tray on its surface. Then, as though weighing nothing, he lifts the table, crosses the distance and sets it down in front of her.

“At your service,” he says with a grin. A grin she’d like to kiss from his mouth.

“Thank you Izuna,” she tells him with a smile while she sits up, Madara’s hand now lazily caressing her back.

“You’re welcome. And I haven’t even had my turn with you yet. Aren’t I the best lover?” he asks wiggling his brows.

She laughs while the man laid on the futon behind her snorts.

Izuna fills the cup with water and offers it to her in one hand while the other grabs and peels a banana. She leans forward and accepts the precious offering eagerly, needing nourishment after the vigorous workout.

While taking a sip, she looks at him from under her lashes and watches as he peels a banana for himself. She hasn’t forgotten about him. He has certainly participated in bringing her pleasure but she hasn’t forgotten that she hasn’t quite reciprocated yet.

He catches her looking at him and he smirks. “Tch. Hime, don’t look at me like that or I’ll have you right now on this table.”

He laughs again when she blushes and almost chokes on the water in her mouth.

“Tell me a story,” he says after she calms down, his dark eyes fond, amused, “from when you were young. Something memorable and has a profound impact in your life.”

* * *

“Tell me about this _academy_ you spoke of,” Madara said while looking at the quiet young woman in front of him with calculating eyes.

She’s currently holding a scroll containing the historical account of some clan he had no care for but he knew her focus wasn’t on it. Her eyes hadn’t moved for a while now—she was deep in her thoughts and simply blankly stared at some part of the written material.

Almost a week of her within his line of sight and he found his captive to be an interesting study in contrasts.

She's a beauty. With her blue-black hair, fair skin and striking lavender-gray eyes. Not to mention the enticing body she took much care to hide under her clothes.

It’s not a loud, in-your-face beauty but the kind you’ll see if you took the time to look really closely. The kind a sharingan wielder like him could recognize with ease.

He was proven in his first estimation that she’s a kunoichi. In the way she controlled her chakra. In the practiced way she walked without any noise. In the way her entire body switched—more like smoothly flowed—to a fighting stance when taken by surprise. In the way her soft and beautiful lavender-gray eyes sometimes unconsciously sharpened and took everything in like a predator watching its prey.

It has also become apparent to him that she’s not just some common woman or average Hyuuga. She’s a lady of high birth, of this he was sure. Perhaps a daughter of a clan elder or even a very close relative of the head family. It was obvious in the graceful way she moved. The way she sat. The way she ate. In her soft voice. Her impeccable manners.

Oddly though, she didn’t have the airs most Hyuugas and females of high birth were known for. She didn’t look down her nose at servants or guards—even those who looked at her with rude expressions in their faces.

She treated everyone with politeness, always showed a servant a smile and acknowledged them with a ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ after being served. She even learned and addressed them by names and proper honorifics.

She’s a very interesting creature—Hyuuga Hinata. A kunoichi and a lady. With many secrets he’d like to discover.

“Tell me of these classes you spoke about. The ones you said you took with Uchiha Sasuke, the person you’ve mistaken my brother for,” he added.

The woman remained silent and kept the pretense of reading the scroll she was holding with her lips pursed. Those damned lips just asking to be kissed.

“Still not going to answer me, Lady Hyuuga? Not afraid I’ll force the information from you?” he taunted.

To his fascination, the woman’s expression hardened and what little he could see of her lowered eyes appeared cold as ice before she forced herself to a vision of calm once more. “Is that a threat I hear Uchiha-sama? And here I though you said you’re not an animal,” she said softly.

Madara rolled his eyes and huffed at his words being thrown back at him, “Hn. How about we make a deal, my lady? Tell me about you, the circumstance of my death that you talked about, Konoha, the academy and Uchiha Sasuke. Tell me everything and I’ll set you free. I’ll even personally escort you to your clan’s domain.”

* * *

She had to leave the Uchiha territory _now_. She needed to do it to get away from Uchiha Madara’s dark, dark eyes and his many questions.

She needed to do it and confirm a theory—her mad theory that she’s not in a genjutsu but was, by some unknown, inexplicable power, thrown in the past, specifically to the highly dangerous, tumultuous period before the founding of Konoha: the Warring States Era.

She had neither of Shikamaru’s brain nor Sakura’s smarts and she’d been too focused on her knowledge and memory of Madara and his Infinite Tsukuyomi during the war that she immediately latched on to the idea that she was in a genjutsu. Add the fact that the Uchiha Clan was the best at casting illusions and it took a while for her brain to really consider some things through.

Yesterday however, the impossible thought of being flung in the past came to her when Madara asked his questions and when he raged afterwards about Senju Tobirama’s schemes causing another of their missions to fail.

And all the little details she noticed but dismissed as part of the illusion...

Madara alive. His different attitude. His more youthful look. His younger brother who looked like Sasuke. The existing and thriving Uchiha Clan. The conflict with the Senju Clan. Their lack of knowledge regarding Konoha. His questions. His offer.

Put them inside a box labeled ‘genjutsu’ and they’re mind-bending but put them in a box labeled ‘time travel’ and it would all make sense. Not that the idea of time travel itself made sense. It didn’t. It didn’t make sense for her at all. It just made sense for her current situation.

She couldn’t remember anything that led to her here. She could not recall what and why and how it all happened. Before she woke up in that cell as Madara’s captive, all she could remember was that she’d fallen asleep under a tree at Team 8’s favorite training ground after some serious taijutsu training.

That’s all she could recall and nothing more.

* * *

When she estimated it to be around three in the morning, she activated her byakugan and surveyed the entire house, making sure not to exert too much chakra and alert others to her movement.

A few rooms from her, she saw Madara’s topless form laid on his own futon, asleep. She observed him for a while and breathed in relief when his chakra network remained relaxed and his breathing pattern even.

Another room down and she observed Uchiha Izuna, also asleep. The rest of the household on the other wing of the house were also asleep, including the servants.

She inspected the surrounding area and silently celebrated upon finding out that there was not a soul up on their side of the house. The guards were far away and if she was quick, she’d be able to leave and keep a comfortable distance from any pursuer.

Mind made up, she got up from her futon and donned one of the thicker yukatas and a haori she was provided. She also bundled another yukata and a blanket and tied them to her back using an obi. Then, from under her pillow, she took the two sharp knives she swiped from the kitchens.

As a kunoichi and a tracking specialist sent to long missions and with Shino and Kiba as teammates for years, she now knew how to live rough. She knew how to make a fire without a match, catch fish, hunt prey and forage for edible food.

But she didn’t know how to conjure knives to cut prey like rabbit or clothes and blankets out of thin air if she got cold so stole them from her captors. It’s their fault she had to resort to stealing anyway, what with them keeping her against her will.

She soundlessly opened the window and jumped silently to the ground. She did one last sweep of the area with her byakugan and, seeing that no one has noticed her movement, she body flickered until she entered the nearby forest, resolved in taking her path to freedom.

* * *

With a slow smirk forming on his mouth, Madara opened his eyes, sharingan active.

_So the little bunny thought she could escape from the big wolf eh? Time to show the Lady Hyuuga who’s superior._

It was just as he anticipated. The pretty little Hyuuga had played the obedient and good little captive card very well but he knew this day would come. Of course he did. He’s Uchiha Madara after all.

He saw how she tried very hard to appear calm for days—and succeeded mostly—only to give herself away by showing a sliver of agitation the day before when he asked questions and presented his offer. He knew then she’d make an attempt to escape very soon.

In swift movements, he got up from his futon, put on his usual black, long-sleeved and high-collared shirt and wrapped around his waist the white sash wherein his pouch of kunai and shuriken and other tools was attached.

He did not don his armor or bring his gunbai or kama or sword—there was no need for them. It was only one unruly, moon-eyed little bunny he’s going to catch after all.

“Brother, what are you waiting for? She’s getting away,” Izuna said right after sliding the door to his room open.

“Relax Izuna, let’s give the little moon rabbit some head start or it won’t be a fun chase,” he drawled before opening his window and jumping to the roof, his body facing the direction where he could feel the faint chakra of their runaway captive was coming from.

Izuna stood beside him not a second longer and two figures from the other side of the clan compound sprinted across the yard and also joined them.

“We were on patrol and felt a disturbance. Is everything well Madara-sama?” their cousin Hikaku asked.

“The Hyuuga has escaped. We’re going after her,” Madara answered. Then added, “No need for you to join us, we can handle it ourselves.”

“Brother, I really think you shouldn’t underestimate her skills. She’s got the byakugan. It may not be as strong as you said but with a greater range of sight, she might just be able to evade us,” Izuna reasoned.

Madara scoffed in derision. “The byakugan’s not all it’s cracked up to be, brother. The Hyuugas claim of having all-seeing eyes is just a boast. I’ve encountered a few of them already to have enough knowledge that their range extends to only around a mile.”

“The forest is vast brother. Let our cousins join, just in case,” his brother said with a huff.

“Do what you want,” Madara said before jumping over the tiled roofs and entering the same forest the little bunny thought she could disappear into.

* * *

Heart in her throat, Hinata increased her speed even more to get away from the four male Uchihas in pursuit of her

She’s overestimated her skill at escaping and putting a great distance between any Uchiha pursuers. They’re just so very fast and they’re getting inexorably closer to her.

When they shortened the distance to just three kilometers, she made a quick decision. She reached from deep within herself and accessed Hamura’s chakra and performed the hand signs for the Shadow Clone Jutsu. She created three clones of herself, commanding them afterwards to head into different directions.

She rejoiced when she saw her pursuers paused in confusion, only to feel dismay when they dispersed to have the clones followed as well. She was very glad not to have Madara running after her but curses! Why did it have to be Uchiha Izuna?

What rotten luck!

* * *

Not wanting to deal with more unexpected tricks, Madara increased his pace and caught up with wily Hyuuga Hinata.

It had been a fun game of chasing the moon-eyed bunny through the dark forest. At first. Now it’s losing its appeal.

With their cousin Hikaku who was talented at sensing, they were able to easily follow their runaway captive. When they were almost upon her though, she performed a clever trick.

 _There’s a change in her chakra_ , their cousin Hikaku reported, _as if some other person’s chakra coated hers and then, she split herself into four, each one heading to a different direction._

It was like none they’ve ever felt or witnessed before. It puzzled all of them, especially Hikaku who was an excellent sensor himself.

For a moment, they all stood still until annoyance took over him and he gave terse commands as to where each of them will head to. He picked East for himself and commanded Izuna to head West, Hikaku North and Setsuna South.

He would have to give it to her, she was fast. But not that fast, especially to him who was born and bred for winning battles. In a matter of few minutes, he was able to reach her. When he approached her though, she popped out of existence.

Like a fucking bubble!

* * *

Izuna never thought he’d one day chase after a woman in a dark forest like some kind of a creep or a rapist and feel excitement. It’s honestly a fucked up activity he believed only vile men and lustful, corrupt noble lords did. And, normally, it was females running after him.

But here he was, running after their wily runaway captive and getting a kick out of it.

He was proven right about not underestimating Hyuuga Hinata though and that’s something he’d be glad to hold over his brother’s head for a long time to come.

Whatever it was she did, the chakra split thing, he was a bit impressed. It was one neat trick to get rid of stupid sensors like the fucker Senju Tobirama. When he caught her, he’ll make sure to get the secret out of her.

He doubled his pace when he felt her chakra up ahead. He might not be as good as the white-haired bastard but he could sense enough. When he saw her form in the distance, he smirked in anticipation of victory, then frowned in distaste when he noticed her settling to a fighting stance.

His brother said to capture the woman, not hurt her or anything. He’d have to handle this carefully.

* * *

Hinata knew there was no other choice but to engage in a fight and do her best to win with Uchiha Izuna at her heels. She only hoped he was neither as powerful nor as talented as his older brother.

She kept her byakugan activated but closed her eyes to avoid getting caught in a genjutsu by the man’s sharingan should he decide to turn it on. Sparing herself from more exhaustion, she willed her remaining shadow clones out of existence and turned and focused on the man just a few paces from her now.

“Lady Hinata! Leaving us so soon without even a farewell? How rude of you, my lady,” the man called out in a casual voice.

Hinata did not respond, merely settled on a fighting stance, both her hands coated by large lion-shaped shrouds. The man stopped a few paces in front of her and looked at her with shrewd dark eyes. Even though it was still dark out, she knew he could see her just fine, as she could him with her byakugan.

Izuna remained calm as he eyed the woman in front of him, taking in her form. He noted that though her byakugan as active, she had her eyes closed—a clever thing to do against a sharingan wielder. He also took in the fierce-looking lion-shaped chakra constructs covering her hands. It’s the first time he’s seen something like it and he’s wary of what it could do in a fight.

“I have orders from my brother to return you to our home, not to harm you. Surely a fight is not necessary?” he asked with a raised brow, silently hoping the woman would not make things more complicated.

“You are right in that a fight is not necessary, Izuna-sama. So if you would kindly accept my wish for freedom and return to where you came from. I would appreciate it very much!”

“Apologies but that I cannot do,” he tells the girl succinctly with a careless shrug. “Clan Head orders, you know.”

They stood at an impasse for a while, one casual and the other ready for combat. Suddenly, Uchiha Izuna attacked, a fist extended to strike her head which she quickly blocked using her lion-fists.

“Fuck!” Izuna cursed out loud as he immediately pulled back his arm and moved a few meters away.

He mentally thanked the gods his speed enabled him to escape the full blow of her lion-coated hands but still! He attacked as a test and got an unpleasant surprise. He only felt it for a while but it was clear the lion-heads could drain his chakra. He didn’t know the Hyuuga had this technique! He thought they only used pure taijutsu.

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will do whatever is necessary to succeed in the mission my brother and Clan Head gave me,” he warned the woman again.

He didn’t have his sword and he couldn’t use ninjutsu or he might just accidentally kill her. If it came to a fight, he would have to match her using his available ninja tools and taijutsu, something he’s wary of now because of the lion shrouds on her hands and the famed Gentle Fist Technique.

And the clever woman has her eyes closed so he couldn’t use genjutsu either. Damned byakugan!

“And I’m sure you’ll understand if I say I, too, will do whatever is necessary to free myself from captivity,” Hinata responded, voice soft but firm. 

Eyeing the determined look on her face, Izuna decided to take his own advice of not underestimating Hyuuga Hinata and activated his sharingan. “Very well, it seems we’ll have to do it the hard way.”

Not really one for confrontation or offensive strikes, Hinata simply prepared to defend while waiting for her opponent. And he didn’t disappoint.

One moment he’s across the small clearing facing her, the next he’s up and close and about to punch her in the stomach. His speed was so incredible she barely had the time to twist to get out of the way and strike back using a lion-covered hand.

With his sharingan though, Izuna was able to anticipate her movement and he simply leaned back and away and followed up with a knee kick to knock her out of balance. She swiftly released chakra from her tenketsu points to counter the blow.

It went on for a while like this—Uchiha Izuna using his sharingan and battle prowess and her doing the best she can to defend. After more exchanges of punches and kicks later Izuna swiftly reached for several shuriken and kunai from his pouch and hurled them at the Hyuuga to act as distractions and give him an opening.

With her byakugan, Hinata was able to view the trajectory of the blades and swiftly performed a rotation.

Izuna moved away once more, a little more impressed at his opponents taijutsu skills. He was quite certain that a few of his tenketsu points on his arm and right knee were blocked as evidenced by the numbness he could feel on those parts.

Their fight was exciting but frustrating at the same time. If it was not a situation wherein he needed to capture her, he would’ve been able to enjoy fighting the little Hyuuga more. Alas, he needed to subdue and seize her and the situation was not going the way he wanted it to.

Yes he had speed over her but Hyuuga Hinata had good striking speed and used some of the best defensive body techniques. Her byakugan and her twin lion fists were damned annoying and made it dangerous for him to get near her striking range. Her ability to control her chakra flow and expel them from anywhere of her body was the best he’s seen by far but it was also very irritating as it limited his options to land a hit.

 _Little moon rabbit_ , he remembered his older brother called their captive. _A little moon rabbit, my ass!_ He thought with annoyance.

Hinata took deep breaths, a bit winded from all the action. Uchiha Izuna was incredibly fast and they were only using taijutsu. Somehow, she knew that if she were his real enemy and he was not trying to catch her alive, if he was not holding himself back and used all his skills to the fullest, she’d be dead already.

She then noticed the younger Uchiha brother took a more serious stance and gasped when she saw that the pattern of his sharingan has changed. Mangekyou Sharingan. He has it! By all the kami!

With all her shadow clones gone from existence, she knew it would only be a matter of time before Madara tracked her down. She didn’t want to deal with two mangekyou sharingan wielders. That would be asking for death.

Not wanting to put herself in a worse situation, she entreated with the younger Uchiha, “Please, Izuna-sama. You have to understand. There’s somewhere I need to go, a place I need to see…I need to confirm something for myself.”

“And as I said before, I will do everything to complete my mission,” the man responded seriously.

Deciding on a different approach, she asked him instead, “Is there a mountain that you know of, one that has a plateau at the top and a sheer cliff facing a vast forest?”

He frowned at the question and looked at her strangely, “Yes. What of it?”

Hinata inhaled then exhaled before making her decision. “I won’t run away from you anymore. I swear I’ll go back with you to the Uchiha Compound. But first, would you accompany me to that mountain please?”


	5. Waking Up To Reality

“A story,” his princess says while looking down contemplatively at the cup in her hands.

Izuna nods and leans forward. He put his elbows on the table, his chin on top of his interlocked fingers, dark eyes showing his interest. “Yes. You told us many things Hime, but you rarely talk about yourself. I want to know more about what your life was like, from where you came from. Consider this the intimate talk after sex.”

He watches her hide a smile with a hand, a soft blush on her cheeks. It’s amusing and adorable, how she could still blush like an innocent after the many things the three of them has done. Arousing too—makes him want to know how far he can get that color to deepen while he ravishes her.

“C’mon Hime,” he gently prods, trying to get his mind off the gutter, “I want to know how your childhood was like. How’s your family like. How it was like growing up in an era of relative peace.”

Her face softens and her eyes go hazy in remembrance before she focuses on him and starts to tell her tale. “When I turned three, I started taijutsu training with my father and began learning my letters and reading with my mother.”

It’s evident in her slow blinks and the ache in her voice and in her pause that she still feels the loss of her mother and it almost makes him want to stop her. But he’s honestly very curious.

There’s so much about her life that Hinata doesn’t proactively share and he genuinely wants to know more about this woman who has somehow defied the laws of time and has done much for him and their clan.

He wants to know everything about her, if possible. To be able to know her inside out and hold in the palms of his hands some of the precious memories that made her the person she is now.

“One day, my mother taught me about clan sigils,” she continues, “She showed to me drawn images of the crests of the noble families of Konoha, both the major and minor clans. It was strange to me, how the other clans have only one but the Hyuuga have two—the eight trigrams and a single red flame."

"Really? I didn't know that," Izuna remarked.

"Yes. Most Hyuuga don’t really bother to use the crests as it’s already used in our taijutsu. But my mother, I noticed that she always stitched a flame to my clothing. One day, I asked her and I still remember what she said. ‘ _The trigrams represent balance and control—the Hyuuga way of living and fighting_.’ ‘ _But as for you and I,_ ’ my mother said with a fierce look in her eyes, ‘ _our crest is the flame, Hinata-hime. It signifies life—the fire in our souls. Make sure that someday, you’ll find someone who’ll keep your flame burning._ ’”

Izuna grins upon hearing the last words and is about to make a cheeky remark when Madara drawls, voice smug. “And what better way to keep a flame burning than to use a fan hm?”

“Thief! You just had to go and steal my line,” Izuna complains.

“Not my fault you’re slow,” his brother retorts.

Izuna glares at his smirking brother before deciding to ignore him. He returns his attention to their woman, “And then? What happened?”

“Then I met a little boy named Naruto—eyes blue as the sky, hair like spun gold and a smile and presence and chakra so warm that little me thought, ‘ _what better way to keep burning than staying close to the sun_?’” she says with a giggle, her pretty lavender-gray eyes bright and teasing.

“Who the fuck is Naruto?” he and his brother ask at the same time.

* * *

With her byakugan still active, she saw with perfect clarity the raging ball of chakra that was Uchiha Madara approach their location from miles away.

Seeing as the younger brother had no intentions of listening to her pleas or helping her, in an act of desperation, she bolted to escape once more, not wanting to deal with Madara’s wrath.

She created two more shadow clones for distraction and breathed a sigh in relief when Izuna followed one of them instead of her. She continued sprinting through the trees, doing her best to increase the distance between her and the Uchiha brothers while also using her ranged sight to look this way and that for a familiar landmark.

Then she came upon a river.

The sight of it, the width, the length—even in the dim light, it was terribly familiar.

It was the Naka River!

With a burst of elation at her discovery, she continued running, now knowing which direction to go.

The dawn’s just breaking so there was already enough light for her to see.

And saw she did.

The vast forest. The miles upon miles of trees that earned her home the name Village Hidden in the Leaves and its shinobi the nickname ‘tree-huggers’.

Then she looked up and stopped running and stood still.

Even with her theory, with her suspicion, the sight was jarring, mind-numbing.

The mountain. The cliff side…

It was empty.

No huge carved faces of the Shodaime and his brother the Nidaime. No Sandaime and Yondaime. No Lady Tsunade and Kakashi-sensei. Not any one of them. 

With a terrible coldness that started in the pit of her stomach and spreading throughout her body, she climbed the mountain. It was a struggle with her knees feeling weak but she needed to reach the top. She needed to be up there and _see_.

When she reached the plateau, she closed her eyes for several seconds and begged whoever gods were willing to listen to end her nightmare. It’s been a long, long bad dream and it’s time it stopped.

When she felt nothing changed, she opened her eyes slowly and looked down...and felt stricken once more when she saw nothing.

No Hokage Tower. No village walls. No Academy Building. No houses. No commercial district. No cacophony of merchants preparing to sell their wares. No sounds of hardworking shinobi doing early morning training exercises. No early bird people in the streets. No streetlights. No streets at all.

Brain reeling, she felt her knees go weak until she could no longer stand. Her breathing turned to short gasps and in some faraway corner of her mind, she heard a voice so like Sakura’s telling her she’s gone into shock and needed to calm down.

But darkness fell like curtain in her eyes and next thing, she knew no more.

* * *

“Where is she?” Madara demanded heatedly as soon as he saw his brother.

“Tch. She too has given me the slip, Nii-san. But I think I have an idea where she’s going.”

“So you caught up with her then? How could you have let her get away? Where is she going?” he fired one question after another. If, no, _when_ he caught the little Hyuuga, he’s going chain her to him so she’ll never get away.

“Oi! Don’t put all the blame on me. Don’t forget you fell for her trick too. We fought. Taijutsu. Little Moon Bunny, my ass Nii-san! She’s no bunny, I tell you. I got a few of my tenketsu points closed and she got some jutsu that could drain chakra.”

He looked closely at his brother then and noticed how Izuna looked a bit disheveled, his face showing irritation.

“Oh? She beat you then?” he asked with a raised brow.

“No! Of course not! I was trying not to hurt her but, well, she did better than many of our men at taijutsu. If I did not possess the sharingan…anyways, as I was saying, I think I know where she’s going. She insisted she needed to go to that mountain Nii-san—the one with the sheer cliff facing the great forest. Where you once played with Senju Hashirama.”

Upon hearing his brother’s words, Madara immediately took off for the mountain, his speed at its maximum level while his mind churned and whirled with the thoughts he’s been having since he first spoke with the Hyuuga.

Answers. He’ll soon have his answers.

* * *

Izuna paused and blinked when he saw the crumpled form of their wayward captive on top of the mountain.

“Is she dead?” he asked after Madara bent down, took a pale wrist and felt for a pulse.

Bending down as well, Izuna put a hand near the woman’s nose to feel her breaths while taking note of the blood pouring from a head wound.

The woman looked so pale it seemed as if she had been leached of all her blood. It’s quite a disturbing sight after their earlier encounter when she looked so strong and alive fighting him.

“No, she’s unconscious. Did you give her this head wound?” his brother asked while wiping the blood from the Hyuuga’s face with his sleeve.

“Of course not,” he denied immediately, “I didn’t injure her in anyway. That wound wasn’t there when last I saw her. It could be she fell and knocked her head or something.”

“Hn. What a troublesome woman. She caused all this commotion before the sun’s even up, played tricks and fought and escaped all this way only to injure herself and fall unconscious,” Madara muttered while lifting the Hyuuga in his arms.

“Well, isn’t that a good thing? I mean, she practically did our work for us. And now you have her back, quiet and pliant in your arms. No more struggle, no more fights. A much better way to start the day, wouldn’t you say?” Izuna asked with a laugh.

His brother did not respond to his jest. He merely stood up with his bundle in his arms and looked down at the sea of trees for one long, silent moment, dark eyes pensive.

“Nii-san? Something the matter?”

“Let’s just go home. This Hyuuga needs a healer to see to her head and I need some damned good tea,” Madara grumbled before turning away and climbing down the mountain.

* * *

Hinata woke up with a pounding ache in her head. Blinking her heavy lids slowly, she lifted a hand to massage her head and lessen the pain only to feel something at her wrist.

Instantly alert, her eyes flew open and she looked at her wrist and saw…

“Chains, that’s right,” a familiar, amused male voice reached her ears, making her look in the direction it came from.

Uchiha Madara’s face greeted her.

“How was your little adventure Little Hyuuga? Did you have fun?” he asked, lips curled up in an arrogant smirk and his dark eyes showing satisfaction.

Memories of what happened earlier that morning came rushing back and Hinata let her head fall on the pillow, mind once more plunged into chaos.

It’s true. She’s in the past. The Warring States Era. She saw it. She had the one proof she needed above all.

Konoha doesn’t exist. At least not yet.

“This really isn’t a genjutsu, is it? I’m really here, aren’t I?” she asked while covering her eyes with a hand, her headache turning for the worse and her chest feeling constricted at the thoughts... 

Hanabi! Her father. Naruto. Her team. All of her family and friends. So far from her reach. 

Are they looking for her? Did they notice her disappearance? Are they doing something to get her back? 

But how? How did she get here? She couldn’t remember. Why couldn’t she remember? What should she do to go back? Will she ever be able to go back? 

She heard her captor approached. When she opened her eyes, she saw him sit down beside her futon, legs crossed, a cup of what smelled like tea in his hand.

“Still thinking this is all a genjutsu hm?” he asked, looking down at her with unreadable dark eyes.

She pursed her lips and chose not to answer, deciding instead to stare at the ceiling.

She’s never been particularly good in making decisions. And most of the decisions she made in the past, there have always been terrible consequences for those around her—consequences which led to either death or suffering. Case in point: Neji.

This situation she’s in right now…it's very precarious. She _couldn’t_ , _shouldn’t_ tell anything to anyone.

What if she made a mess of everything? What if she caused thousands to die and destroyed the future because she was careless with her words?

“That mountain Hyuuga, did you know that was a memorable place for me?” Madara’s voice filled the quiet room once more. “That’s the place where I and another boy I once called a friend talked about our dreams and plans for the future. Senju Hashirama, that’s his name—the same Hashirama who’s now head of the Senju Clan.”

Surprised at the information freely given, Hinata spun her head so fast to look at him, she almost broke her neck. And her breath caught in her throat upon seeing the utterly strange expression on his face and his eyes. It was something…something nostalgic, something sad.

“We talked about making peace, about building a village in the middle of that sea of trees. Hashirama talked about building schools where children could learn. _Konoha_ , you said. _Academy_. _Classes_. A man named _Uchiha Sasuke_ who’s not listed in the Uchiha Clan registry. Your belief that this is a _genjutsu_ , that I should’ve died years ago. I had my theories but you going to that specific mountain confirmed it all for me.”

With every word he said, she felt her breathing slow, her mouth dry.

She didn’t know this part of history. She knew that Madara was the Uchiha Clan Head who made peace with the Senju but she didn’t know they’d been childhood friends. She didn’t know that the village and the future she lived in was a product of both their dreams. She didn’t know…

“You’re from the future, aren’t you? You’re from the future, and this…right now, is the past.”


	6. Questions, Answers and Even More Questions

Now alert and pissed off at the direction the tale is heading to, Madara sits up and curls his right arm possessively around a slim waist and asks once more, “Tell me, _my wife_ , who is this Naruto hm?”

He’s never heard the name before. Hinata rarely tells stories and when she does, it’s mostly about events, what led to them and what the consequences were.

She’s very cautious and avoids giving details like names—her way perhaps of making sure to protect the people from the time she came from.

Over time, annoying though it is, they’ve learned not to push and just wait for her to tell them more of her own free will. The woman may be gentle and unfailingly kind and does not have what it takes to be an unstoppable force but she could be quite stubborn and immovable when she wants to be. 

“Oh yes. I, too, would like to know who the damned fuck is and I’d like to know now,” Izuna says, his tone with a sharp edge to it.

“Oh shush!” Hinata says blithely and Madara’s ire increases when he feels her shake a bit with suppressed laughter. He doesn’t find it funny at all that there’s another man’s name coming from her lips.

“I met Naruto when I was a very young, around six. He was a childhood hero. Someone who helped me and showed me kindness during a time when I felt all alone in the world.”

Madara’s irritation dissipates like fog under the morning sun to be replaced by a mix of anger and sorrow.

A child—she was only a child when she met the boy named Naruto. A child who was suffering from the death of her mother and her father’s neglect and her clan’s harsh indifference. A child who felt all alone while being crushed by the expectations of the adults around her.

“He was everything I was not but all I wanted to be—strong, brave but kind. A little misguided and greatly starved of kindness and affection, I obsessed a little about him and my hero worship bloomed into infatuation then into what I thought was love. But nothing happened between us so you both don’t have to be angry you know,” she continues, voice amused, “In fact, you should give Naruto thanks. I would give him my thanks if I could. After all, he’s one of the spokes on the wheel that spun and thrown me here.”

Madara starts in surprise at the unexpected revelation with her last sentence.

From the beginning, he’s been a witness to her struggles to remember how she traveled through time. And in the entire year now that she has come to live with them and the three months they’ve been married, she never mentioned anything about her memories returning.

“You remember now how you came to be here?” he asks quietly, carefully.

“Oh it’s clear she does, Nii-san. The more important question is, how? How did you come to be here Hime?” Izuna asks, his normally good humor absent.

 _And I will make sure whatever sent you here doesn’t take you away from us_ , Madara adds inside his head.

The woman in his arms is his, his wife and the woman who will birth his heirs—the only other person he’s willing to share her with is the brother of his own bone, flesh, blood and heart. No one’s taking her from him and he’s not going to let her go, not even if she weeps and begs it of him.

“I’m not going anywhere. Not if I could help it. This, here, is my home now,” she says as if reading his thoughts. The resolve in her voice makes him relax and fills his chest with indescribable warmth that all he can do is bury his face on her neck.

She tilts her head to give him more room and he smirks when she sighs and her head falls on his shoulder and her right hand moves to interlock her smaller, daintier fingers with his. 

“I was dying,” she breathes quietly. “Or at least, I remember I was dying.”

Madara instantly tenses and feels a cold feeling form in the pit of his stomach. “What?” he growls, his hand instinctively moves to press her even closer to his body.

“Hm…I’m not really sure if I died or not but that’s what I remember. And I remember Ootsutsuki Hamura appearing before me. He said some things and, well, I’m quite sure he’s the one responsible for my being here.”

“Hamura?!” Izuna exclaims, “The one you said was the younger brother of the Rikudou Sennin? The one who gifted you his chakra?”

“Yes, the ancestor of the Hyuuga Clan. Like I said, I was dying so my memories are a bit hazy.”

He hears her sigh once more, this time in dejection, so he moves one of his hands to gently rub her back, his thumb making small soothing circles on her supple skin. “Then what is it that you _do_ remember?”

“From Hamura, I remember words…phrases. He said something about breaking an oath and intervention. That his byakugan saw far and his tenseigan saw worse things in the future. He said something about more coming for the fruit—which I can only deduce as more beings like Kaguya coming for the chakra fruit. That history will repeat unless changed. He talked about darkness and light and broken and dying lines. I think, maybe, he meant the Senju, Uchiha and Uzumaki lines. The rest don’t make sense really. It’s like a broken prophecy—one that I don’t really want to dwell on else I’ll drive myself to madness trying to figure it out.”

He hears more than sees his brother rise up from his position and walk over to their side. Izuna then sits, takes one of Hinata’s hands and says in an confident voice, “Don’t fret. We’ll figure it out together.” Then with voice as sharp as his blade asks, “But first, I want to know, what happened and why were you dying?”

* * *

So she was stuck in the Warring States Era with Uchiha Madara as her captor.

The confirmation of her time travel theory has compounded the strain she was feeling and now, she felt as if she’s suffocating. As if she’s in between many walls closing in.

She had very few choices left. They number less than the fingers of a single hand. She could try to escape once more but if she did succeed—which is unlikely with two Uchiha brothers keeping their sharp, dark eyes on her—where would she even go?

Not the Hyuuga Clan that’s for certain.

She knew the Hyuuga, knew how power-hungry and manipulative its Main House and Council of Elders were. She knew very well what they would do to her if she showed up unannounced at their doorstep.

The Hyuuga Clan has possibly the most stringent rules amongst all clans, past, present and future—the curse seal the perfect example of that.

What they perceived as a threat, the Hyuuga dealt with using only two methods: If the problem involved insiders, employ the seal. If it involved outsiders, then use elimination. This was the reason why her Uncle Hizashi ultimately died. Because her Father killed the Cloud Ninja who tried to abduct her without a thought for the repercussions of such an act.

As an unknown Hyuuga with the precious byakugan, the current Council of Elders would no doubt move to either have her executed or marked with the curse seal. They wouldn’t care a whit that she’s from the future or that she’s born to the Main House or firstborn to the Clan Head. All they’ll care about would be maintaining their power and control over the clan and keeping everyone else in line. That has always been the Hyuuga way.

So she would have to stay put, to remain a prisoner of the Uchiha at least until she figured something else out. It’s the best option right now. At least, with the Uchiha, she’s provided the basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter over her head.

It’s ironic really, but Uchiha Madara was technically the person she knew best this time period, better than even her own clan and the future Shodaime and Nidaime. It also didn’t hurt that despite his brusque and temperamental attitude, her captor was proving to have some measure of proper manners.

“Answer me, damn you! I’m right, aren’t I?”

Her captor’s demanding voice pierced through her quiet musings but Hinata continued to hold her silence and ignored the angered man in favor of closing her eyes.

What must she do? Perhaps the time travel thing wasn’t permanent? Perhaps it’s just some jutsu that would automatically wear off? Perhaps the people in her time were now looking for her and trying to get her back? Perhaps she should simply just wait to avoid making an even bigger mess?

Time travel—What a powerful tool! But one with unending and complex ethical issues.

The current timeline versus the future.

By choosing to preserve the future she came from, she’ll be letting Zetsu free to do as he liked and technically condemning countless many people to great suffering and dying. Like Madara and the Uchiha Clan for example. Like the Senju and Uzumaki Clans and all the countless people that would perish not just during this time period but in the years to come.

But if she tried to help and fix things and the course of history changed, she could be condemning the people of her timeline to nonexistence. Not only that, efforts to prevent tragedies could result in causing new ones and…

Oh all the great possibilities and the terrible consequences! What a mess!

“So obstinate, Little Hyuuga. You make me want to wring your pretty little neck.”

Death. Of course. That could be another solution. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about anything.

* * *

Madara’s head snapped and he frowned as he looked down at the woman laid on the futon.

Gone was the woman who remained quietly strong for days now. She looked wan, the expression on her face that of weariness and what looked like…defeat.

 _Death as another solution_.

The words were spoken so softly but he _heard_ them. And it was a bit disappointing and disconcerting—that the quietly stubborn woman who, earlier in the day, courageously dared to escape and tricked and fought for her freedom now viewed death as a solution.

“What in the world? You want to die, you foolish woman?” he asked, feeling bewildered at the turn of events.

The Hyuuga went stiff as a board before relaxing. Then she spoke softly, “Hm. Perhaps that’s for the best. Then I wouldn’t make a mess.”

Like lightning, it struck Madara then why the woman stubbornly refused to answer his questions. “I was right. You’re a time traveler and you don’t want to answer my questions because you fear doing so will make a mess of the time and world you came from.”

No answer again.

“I’m not even asking for the full story damn it. All I want is information. Why should I be dead and why does it feel like I’m the villain in this future you came from?” Madara demanded and watched with hawk-like eyes when he saw her eyes snapped open and her breathing hitched after he asked his question.


	7. Changing History

“When I turned twenty, the council finally broke the impasse of who would be the next clan head. They decided to make my sister the official heiress. As for myself, though no longer the heiress, I was still considered a prize. After the war, much has changed with many clans having suffered losses. There were also so many changes to both the economic and political order. To ensure the Hyuuga Clan’s place in the new world, I was arranged to be married to the younger son of the Fire’s Daimyo.”

She tells them the story in a calm and gentle voice, hoping to blunt the effect of her words but, as can be expected, it still garnered the ire of the two stubborn, hot-blooded men.

“Fucking Hyuugas,” Madara growls harshly.

“Bastards!” Izuna says through clenched jaws. “How dare they? How could they?”

She simply rolls her eyes before reprimanding them. “Don’t be too dramatic and judgmental, you two. Arranged marriages aren’t that uncommon. And as clan leaders, you both should know better what’s required of the position. Sad as it is…I simply didn’t have the mind or the disposition to lead an old, proud and powerful shinobi clan in such a cutthroat world as ours. I didn’t even want to be a shinobi in the first place. Sure I wanted to be strong but—the shinobi way of life—it’s just too violent for me.”

She feels Madara’s warm breath as he sighs heavily on her neck. “Was it the bastard you were married to that caused your death?”

Hinata shakes her head and laughs wryly, “No. That’s the irony. I didn’t even get to. It was the curse seal.”

“What?! Curse seal? Why?” he erupts once more, his chakra dark, erratic and a bit suffocating.

“Please, calm down,” she implores him and squeezes his arm gently to lessen his anger. “As you can see, I am perfectly fine. Everything that’s happened—they’re all behind me now. They don’t matter anymore. It’s alright now.”

“I don’t want to hear anymore,” Izuna says, the look on his face dark and frightening. “Don’t say anything anymore or I might just kill every fucking Hyuuga Elder I meet when walking around the village.”

“That’s not such a bad idea, brother,” her husband says, voice sounding equally thrilled and menacing. “We can get rid of them. Not out in the streets of course, but through a more covert manner—one that won’t be traced back to us. I’m sure I can convince Hashirama to look the other way. The idiot might even extend help after we explained things to him. With the Main House elders gone, it would be easier for the Hyuuga to change their ways.”

“You can’t!” Hinata snaps immediately, feeling dismay at the utterly irresponsible and ridiculous plan taking shape inside the two’s hot heads. “You cannot simply use murder and violence to change the Hyuuga.”

“Why not?” Madara asks, voice challenging. “What’s to stop us from getting rid of a few old dirt bags?”

“Because the village is just starting to rise and everything is still so dangerous. If you do anything right now, even if secretly, it will have ripple effects. It will cause the other clans to distrust the idea of a village and possibly destroy what we’re just starting to build. What’s more, with me married to the Uchiha Clan, most will definitely look at us with suspicion. A series of wrong moves and our clan might just find itself being cast as the villain that the entire village has to get rid of.”

For all that peace among the clans and the creation of Konoha has brought to their lives, Hinata cannot forget the fact that danger has compounded several folds as well. It is especially perilous at present as the village is only at its infancy stage with past grudges still so fresh in everyone’s minds and the relationships between clans still so tenuous and fraught with much distrust.

Any wrong move and it might just blow up like thousands of explosive tags on their faces. She cannot let that happen. She cannot allow the same tragedy that occurred in the future happen once more to the Uchiha Clan—her clan now.

“Hime, surely you’re not content to simply let those rats continue using the seal?”

She turns to face Izuna. “Of course not,” she vehemently tells him while looking him in the eye. “That seal is abhorrent and has twisted the Hyuuga in disgusting ways for many generations. It is my goal to see that gone.”

She’ll never forget the curse seal and what it’s done to her and the rest of her family. Her forehead may be clean now but the seal has practically shaped her entire life she may as well have it marked on her soul.

It has left its mark on her that first time she saw her father used it on her Uncle Hizashi. That horrifying moment when she saw her strong uncle fell and writhed on the floor in agony, froth and pained groans pouring out his mouth, hands clutched desperately at his head while the seal burnt bright and menacingly green on his brows.

The mark burrowed even deeper over the years. It dug every time she saw young Neji’s silver eyes gleaming with blame and hatred after his father’s sacrifice. When his seal was activated as punishment and he too, like his father, fell on the floor—agonized, guttural screams coming out his young throat.

All those times when it was branded on little children’s foreheads as though they were nothing but cattle. The times she saw the way the main house members used it so callously on the members of the branch for any small slight committed.

Almost her entire life, the elders dangled it threateningly over her and Hanabi’s heads as they pitted them against one another like fighting dogs in a ring. It’s why she could never defeat her sister during their spars. The sickening image she conjured of Hanabi being given the seal if she proved herself a strong and capable heiress—the thought had plagued her every day and night for many years.

She will never forget the sight of it on Neji’s forehead during the war, when he died. How in some small part of her mind, a little voice whispers sometimes that his sacrifice was made not only because of his love for her and his wish to protect Naruto but because that’s what the seal and the station in life forced upon him by their clan has taught him since he was just a little boy. It’s what he was conditioned to do.

She’ll do her best to get rid or modify the damned curse seal so that it won’t be used as a tool to subjugate the other half of her family anymore. For Neji, she’ll do it.

“How do you plan to get rid of it then?” Madara asks, voice a lot calmer this time.

“First step is the creation of laws and as Clan Head, I will need your help in this,” she says while giving her husband a glance. “There must be established laws that will protect every individual’s rights—provisions that will require the village’s ruling body and the clans to treat each person equally and impartially.”

“Of course you’ll have my support in this,” her husband says with a firm voice. “That has always been Hashirama’s and my dream—peace and equality for everyone. But how about the seal?”

“It was almost impossible to abolish it before because of one main reason—there was an abject lack of seal masters then. But we have a lot of seal masters here and now. We have the Uzumakis, Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama.”

The two brothers’ predictably grouse upon hearing the younger Senju’s name.

“Please Hina, try not to involve the white-haired asshole,” Izuna says with his face scrunched up in disgust. “The thought of you spending even more time with that piece of shit—I can’t take it.”

“Tch. I agree,” Madara grumbles. “You’re already spending enough time with the bastard as it is.”

“This again.” Hinata closes her eyes in exasperation. “This hostility with Tobirama-sama is really becoming tedious. Give him a chance. He may be a grumpy man but he’s quite very helpful and hardworking and dedicated in helping make Konoha a better place.”

“Sage! Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for that asshole’s cold charm?” Izuna loudly reacts, face aghast.

“No. I have not fallen for his cold charm as you put it. But you do understand that if you want our clan members to work together, for the other clans to trust the Uchiha more and for this village to flourish—you understand you have to stop antagonizing him, don’t you?”

“Let’s not talk about that bastard anymore hm? It feels wrong to hear his name from your mouth while in our bed,” Madara grumbles before scraping his wicked teeth at her nape and sucking hard, enough to leave a mark.

“Oh I totally agree with Nii-san. No more talking about bastard Hyuugas and Senjus. Ours should be the only names coming out of your lips while in this room, Hime. And I believe it’s my turn now,” Izuna says in a low voice while giving her a smoldering look, making her breath hitch as one of his hands reached up to squeeze a breast while the other went down between her thighs.

* * *

Inside the room she was given, Hinata activated her byakugan and, with a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach, she watched as some shinobi of the Uchiha Clan entered the gates in a much more subdued manner than when they had left the day before.

She knew from the rumors she’s heard that they’d just been in a clash with the Senjus over a territorial dispute between two noble families near the borders of the Land of Grass.

Madara and his younger brother Izuna, along with some of their men had gone to the border to deal with the Senjus stationed there and she was left behind in the Main House with guards watching her every move.

Watching them now, from the looks of it, it seemed the battle had not gone in their favor.

She was about to turn off her byakugan and go back to reading the novel she decided to pick up for that day when she saw her Madara rushing past through the gate and into the Main House as though a death reaper was hot on his heels.

Her breathing hitched when she saw that the Clan Head was carrying his younger brother, both their long hairs disheveled and their clothing bloodied. Upon taking a closer look, she found out with a jolt that all the blood was coming from the younger Uchiha brother who had a large gash from his chest down to his stomach.

“Healers! Get the healers! Now!” Madara shouted, his voice so loud and commanding but with a hint of panic that it carried even to her ears.

Her interest suddenly gone, she dropped the novel she was about to read and instead observed as the Uchiha Clan Head went down the hall leading to his brother’s quarters, followed by some women. A few seconds and he had laid his injured brother on top of his large futon to be looked at by the healers.

The women went through a flurried series of movements. They cleaned the large gash and poked and prodded and lathered something on it but to her surprise none of them attempted to actually heal the gaping wound. They didn’t know the mystical palm technique yet, she realized. Of course. Wasn’t it the Senjus who invented the healing technique?

Biting her lip, she watched tensely as they continued with the same futile actions while Uchiha Izuna lost more and more blood, his chakra levels going down dangerous levels as his body tried to heal itself but failed.

She turned her gaze to Madara and found him with his back stiff as a board as he watched his brother fade before his very eyes. The man’s expression was one of helplessness. Of hopelessness. His dark, dark eyes bright with unshed tears, his jaws clenching and unclenching while his hands curled into fists.

Was this it? Was this the start of his spiral to madness and delusions? Was this the reason thousands upon thousands died? Was this why he wanted to subject them all to an Eternal Tsukuyomi? Because his last remaining brother died and the harsh reality has become too much for him he would rather live in a perfect dream?

What if Uchiha Izuna lived? Would Madara also be prevented from going off the deep end? Would the world, the time she came from be a better one or would it cease to exist? Would all the people she loved get to live happier lives or would they be denied existence?

But what about those who will suffer and die if she stands by and does nothing? Don’t they also deserve a chance at a better life?

Such a difficult decision to make! So many what ifs and so many possible consequences.

* * *

After almost an hour of watching the Uchiha healers failing and her own guilt at doing nothing growing, with shallow breaths and weakened knees, Hinata got up and went out of her room. She walked the hallway and approached the sliding door leading to Uchiha Izuna’s rooms and with trembling hands, she slid it open, causing all the people inside the room to turn and look at her.

“What the fuck are you doing here Hyuuga?! Get out! Get out!” Madara bellowed, face twisted in fury at the sight of her.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her hands up in an attempt to pacify him. “Help. I can help. Let-let me help. Let me help heal him. Please,” she pleaded before closing her eyes and bowing deep, feeling nauseous and terrified at the absolutely crazy decision she just made.

She felt movement in front of her and suddenly, a large, calloused hand lifted her chin, forcing her to look up into red eyes with swirling tomoes. “Heal? You’re a healer? You can heal my brother?” Madara asked in a low, dangerous tone.

“I- I know some,” she stuttered then swallowed to ease her parched throat. “If-if you let me try, I will…I will do my best. I swear.”

He stared at her for a while before speaking once more. “You better Hyuuga. Or I’ll make you regret it. You understand?”

Hinata nodded her head jerkily and breathlessly whispered. “Yes, Uchiha-sama.”

* * *

Madara sat seiza style and watched with sharp eyes as the little Hyuuga knelt tremulously by his wounded brother’s side. He watched as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before lifting her lids, her byakugan active with veins protruding at the sides of her face and her temples.

Then, all of a sudden, he felt a change in her chakra composition. The normally calm and pleasant one was being coated—no, it was being dominated, by a chakra that was colder, more potent. It felt just like what happened a week ago, during her escape, he remembered.

He sensed the new chakra surge and watched with surprise when it became visible and wrapped around the Hyuuga like a thick purple cloak. The sight also made the other useless healers within the room gasp and start whispering amongst themselves. He ignored them of course, and continued watching his captive with rapt attention.

The woman lowered her face and looked at his brother before saying in almost a whisper, “I am…Izuna-sama’s chakra is down to very dangerous levels. What I am going to do is transfer some of mine to boost him first. So please, don’t be alarmed.”

Though puzzled at how a chakra transfer was possible, Madara gave his permission. “Go on.”

The Hyuuga placed her hand on his brother’s chest and in a blink of an eye, Izuna’s alarmingly low chakra level instantly shot up. The effect was immediate too—his brother’s deathly pallor noticeably improved and his shallow breathing eased a little.

At the first sign of progress, Madara felt the constricting feeling in his own chest lessen and the dark thoughts that plagued him earlier—the thought of losing the last of his family, of burying the last brother he swore to protect—they also slipped away a little.

After the chakra transfer, the Hyuuga’s unique purple chakra cloak disappeared. It was gone so completely that he could neither sense nor see a hint of it using his sharingan. Her normal, calm one returned and next he saw, the chakra coating her hands was colored green.

“I’m going to start the healing now,” she said softly before placing her green chakra-imbued palms above the large gash on his younger brother’s chest and stomach.

It took hours, four to five perhaps, but he watched everything with his sharingan.

The Hyuuga made an impressive display of focus and chakra control as she pumped the healing chakra to her hands and kept working on his younger brother’s injury, the gash growing smaller and smaller while Izuna looked better and better. When it was finally over, it looked as if his younger brother was never injured in the first place.

“It’s done,” the Hyuuga breathed out tiredly while wiping sweat from her face with the sleeve of her yukata. “He’s all healed but, he’ll need, at the very least, two weeks of rest to ensure he won’t strain the organs and muscles that were just mended.”

Madara wrenched his eyes from his unconscious brother and turned it to the woman who just spoke and saved his life.

He has thought the Hyuuga beautiful many times before already but, right now, with sweat beading on her forehead and some rolling down her cheeks, with a muted expression of accomplishment written on her face, and her arms trembling just a little bit after hours of healing and keeping his brother alive—he’s convinced she’s at her most beautiful.

“Thank you, Hyuuga,” he said after clearing his throat, feeling overwhelming relief at the knowledge that his brother will continue to live and so very grateful at the woman who made it all possible.

“For what you’ve done. For saving my brother. Thank you.”


	8. Making Peace

“Here, Hime,” Izuna almost sang before rudely invading the flushed Hyuuga’s personal space and putting more food on her plate. “You worked hard today and you look like you’ve ran out of energy, you need to eat more to replenish it.”

Madara stifled a snort and instead picked up his cup, slowly sipping his tea as he watched the scene in front of him.

Only two days from when he almost died from a fatal wound and Izuna was already back to his feet, energetic than ever and now shamelessly flirting with his savior. It was a little annoying that he went through a lot of anguish when he watched his brother almost die only for said little brother to act now as though everything was alright with the world.

When he heard a soft sound of protest, he turned his gaze to the only other person with them.

His younger brother was right. Hyuuga Hinata looked tired. She tried to conceal it but her soft lavender eyes made it obvious. It’s to be expected. After spending hours healing Izuna three days ago, she also helped heal the rest of his injured clansmen. And today, she spent many hours teaching and sharing all her medical knowledge to his clan’s healers.

“Hyuuga, after you’re done teaching all you can to my clan’s healers, I’m escorting you back to your clan,” he said calmly after putting his cup back on the table.

The woman turned to look at him so swiftly he worried she’d given herself a whiplash. “W-what?” she asked with pretty eyes wide in surprise.

“Brother?” Izuna also asked, a frown marring his face.

Madara’s lips flattened as he pushed down his reluctance in giving voice to his own decision. If he had the choice, he would rather keep the Hyuuga in the Uchiha Clan territory for as long as he could. She still hadn’t answered any of his questions about the time travel theory and with her more advance knowledge in healing, she’d be a great boon to him and his people. But with her innocence of any crime and after everything she’s done, doing so would be an act of dishonor.

Sighing, he looked the woman in the eye and explained. “There’s no reason for us to keep you here against your will. You’ve done my clan and I no wrong and…we in fact owe you a great debt for all the help you’ve given us. It’s only right we return you to your family.”

He watched as she blinked rapidly before lowering her gaze. “I-I can’t go back to the Hyuuga,” she whispered softly. “I don’t want to go back.”

Upon seeing the barely concealed sorrow and fear on her expressive face, Madara brows furrowed. “What’s wrong? Shouldn’t you want to return to your clan?”

“I…” the Hyuuga trailed off then shook her head. “I just can’t.”

“Then what do you want?” he asked, feeling at a loss on what exactly to do with her. Wasn’t it the norm for captives to want to go home? To want to escape? The woman herself has fought tooth and nail to escape over a week ago. What has changed? Why were women so difficult to understand and prone to changing their minds on a whim?

When the Hyuuga failed to respond after a long while, Madara heaved a sigh once more. “Alright then. You may stay here for however long you wish. Once you’ve decided on something, just let me know. As I said, we owe you a great debt. I mean to have it repaid Hyuuga.”

He then picked up his chopsticks and continued to eat. Izuna, who remained silent during the entire exchange, also toned down his flirtation and continued with his own meal.

“Make peace.”

It was now Madara’s turn to snap his head up to look at the woman. His brother, he noticed, has gone almost deathly still.

“What did you just say?” he asked in a quiet, careful tone. Did Hyuuga Hinata just say what he heard? Or has his hearing gone bad somehow?

With trepidation written all over her face, the woman responded softly. “Y-you said…you said you owe me, Uchiha-sama. A debt you said. A-and that you mean to have it repaid.” She halted, bit her lip and took a deep breath before continuing, “This…this is what I want as payment. Make peace with the Senju Clan. Please.” She finished with a deep bow.

Madara’s sharingan activated along with the surge of his anger and his hands clenched and broke his chopsticks. Seeing the woman’s eyes widen in fear at what transpired, he willed his eyes to go back to normal as he slowly lowered the ruined eating implements on a small empty bowl. He opened his mouth to speak when his brother beat him to it.

“Only three days ago, I almost died from a wound given to me by the bastard Senju Tobirama. You saw it and even healed it yourself. Now you ask us to make peace with them after what just happened?” Izuna questioned in a low, dangerous tone, one he normally used when faced with an enemy.

“Why do you fight?” the Hyuuga asked instead of answering, her voice soft and a bit shaky. “What are you fighting for?”

“For justice and vengeance and the survival of our clan of course!” his younger brother answered heatedly.

The Hyuuga’s mouth closed and opened several times but no word came out. She reached for her own cup and took a gulp of her tea before speaking once more, this time facing him. “And you Uchiha-sama? What is your reason for fighting?”

“I fight to protect my brother and my clan, Hyuuga,” Madara answered through gritted teeth, trying to control himself by keeping in mind that the woman before him has saved his brother and has done him and his no wrong.

“Justice, vengeance, clan protection and survival,” she enumerated slowly. Softly. “For centuries now, generations of Senju and Uchiha warred for most likely the same reasons. Tell me, do you really still believe all those things you wanted would be accomplished by carrying on with the same pattern?”

“And what do you know about war, woman?” he bit back angrily, feeling his ire mounting despite the Hyuuga’s soft voice and calm demeanor.

“Enough,” she breathed out, her chin quivering and her lavender eyes filling with pain and grief that she tried to hide by lowering her lashes. “Enough to know that there are no winners in wars. There are only those who are left behind to grieve and pick up the broken pieces and then there are those who are dead—whose rotting corpses will feed not only carrion birds and maggots but also the bottomless pit that is the cycle of hatred. Whose blood will continue to fuel the wheel of violence and war. A wheel that, if not stopped, will go on spinning, crushing everything on its path, wrecking lives and hopes and dreams.”

She then took a deep, shuddering breath and bravely met his eyes, “As leaders of the Uchiha, you are both in an enviable position of strength to stop and break the wheel. You both have the power to change the course of history and help build something better, something greater than what’s been passed down to you by your father and his father and forefathers before him.”

Finding the sorrow and hope and plea in her eyes unbearable, Madara looked away while clenching his fists under the table. All the things she said—he already knew those, damn it. He already thought of them many times since many years ago.

“Your words sound nice but you don’t understand, _Hime_ ,” Izuna said with a slightly mocking tone. “You think you do but...Have you ever even fought in a war? Have you watched a loved one fall in the hands of your enemies?”

“I have,” the Hyuuga responded, her voice just a bit cold, making Madara turn his head to look at her once more. “I _have_ fought in a war. I _have_ watched a beloved brother fall just a few steps in front of me. I _have_ helped bury perhaps hundreds of corpses. So don’t look down on me and don’t assume I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

By the end of her speech, her voice had become wobbly and her eyes had gone bright with unshed tears that she hurriedly wiped away with her sleeve.

“I’m sorry,” Izuna said awkwardly, remorse evident on his face. “You’re right. I have no right to make assumptions. But this conflict between us and the Senju…It’s not easy…” his brother trailed off before closing his eyes and lifting a hand to squeeze the bridge of his nose.

“Of course it won’t be easy,” the Hyuuga agreed with a sad twist to her mouth. “Peace will never be easy, especially for us shinobi who are quick to take offense and are capable of unspeakable acts of violence. Peace is going to be an entirely different beast, I imagine. Something that will be hard to keep on a leash and will require a lot of hard work and patience. But, in the end, if we all just give it a chance, I believe it will be worthy.”

* * *

“Nii-sama.”

Izuna called out to get the attention of his older brother who was still and silent as a statue in the darkness as he gazed at the moonlit garden beyond. Not getting a response, he closed the distance, leaned on a post and waited to be acknowledged. After a few more moments of silence, he turned his head to look at Madara.

For the first time in a long while, he noted that his brother’s face looked older than it should be. They were barely more than a year apart and yet, at twenty-three, Madara already looked like he’s in his thirties with the creases that were now a permanent fixture under his powerful eyes.

“You’re thinking about what the Hyuuga Hime said,” he guessed upon seeing the contemplative expression his last remaining sibling wore on his face.

Madara hummed, dark eyes still faraway. “What good has countless years of warring with the Senju done to us and our clan, Izuna?”

The younger brother slumped, turned his head and he too looked out over the garden. There was no need to respond, they both knew the answer already.

Fighting with the Senju has brought them nothing but death and destruction. The loss of their little brothers and their father. The deaths of so many of their kin. Their slowly dwindling clan wealth—a problem not yet fully realized or felt by the rest of their clan but one the two of them has already realized with their full access to the clan’s treasury and financial records.

“You plan to make peace with Senju Hashirama and his clan then,” he concluded quietly while trying his best not to let his bitterness bleed in his tone.

Granted, the Uchiha has done the same to their families and relatives but…the thought of clasping hands with the same people who have caused them so much loss—it’s just so hard to swallow.

“It’s like she said, brother. This cycle of hatred. This endless, pointless war. The deaths of our family, our blood. Our men, women and children. Little children! It’ll never end unless we make the conscious effort to put a stop to it,” Madara said with a tired sigh, one hand going up to massage his temples.

Then, turning to face him, his brother clasped his shoulders hard and in a low, rough voice added, “And you. You almost died, brother. You almost died. I saw it. You kept on bleeding and your chakra was almost non-existent and our healers couldn’t do shit. If she hadn’t been here…If she’d not given a care…If she hadn’t volunteered…I’d have lost you too. And I’m not going through that shit again Izuna. I refuse to. Do you hear me? I refuse to go through that hell again.”

Izuna swallowed the lump in his throat upon seeing the emotions that warred on his brother’s face. Anger, pain, sorrow and a desperation which he feared might turn to madness if his brother was forced to suffer his loss.

“I don’t think I’ll ever trust the white-haired bastard. But he’s not the head of his clan, nor is he the strongest, so I guess that’s a boon. How about you? How much do you trust Hashirama? Would you trust him with your life and our peoples’ lives?”

“I do. Trust Hashirama, that is,” his brother answered with a low sardonic laugh. “And gods damn it all but yes. Yes, I would trust him with my life.”

“Alright,” Izuna murmured after a long moment of struggling within himself. “Alright. So be it. Let’s make peace. And damn the fucking Senjus to the pits of hell if they try to betray us afterwards.”


	9. Actions and Consequences

For Hinata, life so far had been nothing but a series of tragedies.

From her Uncle Hizashi’s sacrifice to Neji’s hatred. Her mother’s death. Her Father’s harshness and neglect. His constant and blatant dissatisfaction and disappointment for her. The cold, judging eyes and cruel words of the elders.

The many years of struggling to carry all the expectations of her as heiress to the Hyuuga. Her eventual banishment. The devastating knowledge that she was _expendable_ in the eyes of her own father—the first man she loved who’s supposed to love and protect her in return.

Then there were the missions. Some of them easy enough but others so hard. Difficult missions she’d been forced to do many things she otherwise would not have done had she been given the choice. Tracking and spying in enemy territories. Fighting. Killing. Burying corpses of not only men and women but also of innocent children.

Then there’s the war. Neji’s death. The painful, unrequited love she harbored for Naruto. Hanabi’s kidnapping.

All of them occurring one after the other that it was all she could do to breathe. To not drown in what seemed like endless pain and sorrow. To keep moving forward one heavy step at a time.

Waking up in the warring states era was just more of the same.

In a very short span of time, she’d been forced to go through the different phases of grief once more.

First was the shock when she woke up and found herself in a place she wasn’t familiar with. The confusion and fear she felt upon meeting an alive Uchiha Madara. The staunch denial of everything that’s happening. The belief that she was caught in a powerful genjutsu.

Then there’s the anxiety once she’s realized that what she thought was a genjutsu was in fact real. The frustration for having little choices. For being a prisoner of the man who once played the role of a delusional madman and villain in a war that saw thousands dead.

Next was depression. The inner struggle and the feeling of helplessness in the situation she found herself in. The desperation to escape her prison.

Next came the negotiation. With herself. With the Uchihas. Her first step of overcoming her struggle reaching out by healing Uchiha Izuna and teaching and helping the healers of the Uchiha Clan. Her appeal of making peace as payment for the help Uchiha Madara saw as a debt.

Then finally, the slow process of acceptance. Of exploring her options in the strange world and turbulent time she was forcibly and cruelly thrown into.

And for a short while, she thought she was already on the path of moving on, even if just a little bit forward.

But…

Surrounded by so many strangers, seeing the banners bearing the crests of the Uchiha, Senju, Uzumaki and Sarutobi clans, watching Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama shake hands, hearing them declare the end of hostilities between their two warring clans and the beginning of the peace negotiations…

The reality of the situation, _her_ _situation_ , and the ramifications of it all came crashing down once more. Breaking— _shattering_ her all over again.

Her family. Her friends. Her home.

_Kurenai. Kiba. Shino._

_Naruto_.

 _Hanabi_. _Her little sister_.

All the people she loved— _loves_. All of them so far out of her reach.

 _Everything_ _gone perhaps forever._

The ache that came with the realization was unbearable and robbed her of her strength.

She felt a burning in her eyes and a painful ringing in her ears. She felt her throat constrict. Her chest so tight it felt like it might burst from the pressure. And deep inside, she felt a wail building—trying to claw at her throat and out of her mouth.

* * *

He was listening with only half of his attention while Hashirama blathered on and on and on about how wonderful it was that they’re finally on the road to establishing peace when his eyes caught sight of her.

Even with the distance between them, he saw how even though she stood in the midst of his gathered clansmen and women, she looked small and lost. Then he focused on her face and saw…

Before he could even think of it, his body moved—as though tethered to her—and he seamlessly weaved through the crowd and caught her before she could fall.

His one arm around her waist and the other on her shoulder, he looked down to see moon-pale eyes blown wide and filling with tears and felt her entire body quake as she struggled for air.

He’s gone through enough battles and seen enough men suffer and die to realize she’s going through some kind of shock.

In his periphery, he saw the people around them turn their heads and start paying attention to the scene they’re making so he moved his hands to lift her up and in large strides, carried her to the nearby forest and away from prying eyes. He felt Izuna, Hashirama and even the bastard Tobirama follow but paid them no mind.

After moving some distance, surrounded by trees and far from nosy spectators, he finally put her down on the grass. He took a moment to give his brother, his friend and the white demon threatening looks to shut them all up before going through the process of calming her down.

To his concern, her struggle to breathe has gone worse and her face was now wet with tears. Quickly placing a palm on her back and making slow circles to comfort her, he instructed her in a calm voice, “Hyu—Hinata. Breathe. Breathe. In then out. In... then out.”

He repeated the same words until she slowly took several wet, shuddering gasps. It seemed like forever before her shaking stopped and her breathing turned moderate.

Though feeling hesitant, he went on and asked her, “What’s the matter? Did something happen? Did someone upset you?”

She shook her head slowly then looked at him, her eyes filled with tears and her normally calm face an image of utter grief and devastation, making him gnash his teeth.

“I want to go home,” she shuddered out, voice breaking. “You now have your peace. Whatever it was you did that brought me here, undo it and let me go home. Let this—whatever this is—end. Please. Please.”

“I didn’t do anything, woman,” he said through clenched jaws, “I didn’t do anything.”

“But only you could have,” she croaked out, insistent. Her fingers gripping the front of his clothes tight. “You are capable of many things. Impossible things. My sister…I need to go back.”

Torn between anger at her blame, pride in her belief in his capabilities and sympathy for her situation, he settled for clasping her shoulders. “How? Tell me how and I’ll do my best to help you.”

No answer came from her lips. Her eyes slipped shut and she slumped in his arms, sobbing so hard that her breathing went erratic once more.

“Madara,” Hashirama called as he approached, voice low and careful. “What is this? What’s happening?”

When he looked up, he saw that the Senju Leader’s face was one of worry and bewilderment while the bastard Tobirama was looking at him with eyes narrowed in judgment.

“She’s a Hyuuga. Her eyes and her chakra tell me so. Did you abduct this woman from her clan and keeping her against her will?” the white-haired demon asked with a frown.

Madara stiffened and saw red, his blood suddenly boiling hot and his ire rising at the accusation. He opened his mouth to answer when Izuna beat him to it.

“Shut your mouth, bastard! Don’t hurl accusations at my brother’s feet when you don’t even have a single fucking idea what’s happening.”

“The woman is asking to be returned her to her home and family—what are we supposed to think?” the asshole Senju challenged.

“Well! I’ll have you know I’ve offered to take her to the Hyuuga but she refused. She chose to stay with us!” Madara snapped heatedly.

“Maa, calm down you three. We’re literally in this place to make peace, not war,” Hashirama intervened using a placating tone while placing himself like a barrier in their midst. “Tobirama, don’t go assuming things. Izuna, apologies if my brother’s words offended you, I’m sure he’s just concerned. Madara, why don’t you enlighten us? What’s happening? Who’s this? She doesn’t look fine, is there anything we can do to help?”

Madara ran a hand down his face in exasperation before looking down at the woman in his arms and nudging her a bit. “Oi, Hyuuga, you troublesome woman. Help me out a little bit here, won’t you?”

The woman took shallow inhales and exhales and wiped her face with the sleeves of her borrowed kimono before slowly detaching herself from him. On shaky knees, she stood up and faced the other three, her head bowed and her long hair hiding her face.

“I’m—I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to cause all of you any inconvenience.” she said, voice a bit hoarse but sincere and full of remorse. “And…Thank you for your concern Hashirama-sama, Tobirama-sama. But Madara-sama is not keeping me hostage. I…What he said was true. I’ve decided to stay with the Uchiha of my own free will.”

At her words, the atmosphere changed. Hashirama didn’t look so worried anymore and the bastard Senju stopped looking less like a bastard.

“You still look unwell though, Lady Hyuuga,” Hashirama pointed out. “And you did say earlier that you wanted to go home. Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Do you know a jutsu that can defy the laws of time?” the Hyuuga blurted out, making all of them still.

A look of unease was painted on Izuna’s face while Hashirama looked flabbergasted and Tobirama...To Madara's irritation, the white-haired demon looked highly intrigued.

“Defy the laws…of time?” the Senju Leader asked with his head tilted in confusion.

“Yes,” the Hyuuga confirmed, then added softly, “Time travel.”

Hashirama—the idiot—suddenly burst out laughing. “Oh…You’re funny! I like you! I’m sure you and Tobi would make great friends. You see, he’s also very interested in researching and inventing all sorts of jutsu. He even made a space-time jutsu!”

“Hashirama, you idiot,” Madara bit out in annoyance. “This isn’t the time to be stupid. Just look at her. Does she look like she’s trying to be funny?”

The man, thankfully, stopped laughing immediately.

“I’m sorry. That was a serious question?” the idiot asked, confusion returning to his face.

“That’s a stupid question Anija,” Tobirama huffed then moved closer to the Hyuuga, his red eyes looking at her so intensely that Madara could not help but move and stand behind the time-traveler Hyuuga and glare at the blasted Senju.

Izuna, he saw, also looked ready to off the younger Senju should he make any stupid move.

“Time travel,” the white-haired man uttered in a low voice, his face not showing any surprise or confusion at the revelation. “You look serious about this topic, Lady Hyuuga. You said earlier that Madara could do impossible things and you asked him to undo whatever jutsu it was that brought you here and let you go home. I take it you’re a time-traveler then. From the future?”

With a shaky inhale, the Hyuuga nodded her head.

“Wait…Madara," Hashira interrupted, "Is this the healer you told me about earlier? The one who saved Izuna?” 

“Yes,” Madara responded tersely.

Tobirama looked sharply at them before turning his gaze at the Hyuuga.

“You saved Izuna,” he said with a brooding expression on his face. “And now here we all are, in this time and place, ending the hostilities and discussing peace. Such actions are bound to have consequences. Many and great consequences. Lady Hyuuga, have you considered that the future now might no longer be the same future you came from? That even if a time-travel jutsu was miraculously created, you returning there might be for naught?”

At the darned Senju’s words, the Hyuuga gasped loud and her body shook so hard. Then, with a terrible, choked cry, she started falling.

And like before, Madara's body instinctively moved to catch her once more.


	10. A Few Steps Forward

Eyes closed in focus, Hinata reached deep within and let Hamura’s chakra rise up and mix with hers before performing the necessary hand seals to create shadow clones. With her Ootsutsuki ancestor’s more potent chakra added, her clones were bound to be stronger, more durable.

After providing the two instructions, they began a taijutsu spar of two versus one.

Though his words were blunt and hard to swallow, Senju Tobirama was right. With the changes made in this period like her saving Uchiha Izuna from certain death and the peace between the Uchiha and Senju now happening years earlier, the future she came from must be unrecognizable by now. Better or worse, she couldn’t tell and was even afraid to know.

It still hurt very much—the knowledge that she might never return to her rightful place in time. That she’ll never again see all the people precious to her. It all still made her heart twist and ache and left her breathless at times. 

But, if they’re all still alive in that timeline she’d been taken away from, they’d all move on, won’t they? They’d all eventually move on, just as they had moved on from the losses they experienced during the war.

Hanabi, she’s sure, would mourn. But with her gone, her younger sister’s now the undisputed heiress to the Hyuuga. She’ll become Clan Head one day and she’d eventually have many duties to perform and problems to worry over rather than waste time grieving for a missing sister.

As for her teammates…Kurenai-sensei would no doubt grieve for a while but she has Mirai-chan who’ll brighten her days and fill them with new, happier memories. Kiba and Shino, her best friends, would feel sad too. But in the next few years, they’d both marry and go on to have children. They’d have their own families and shinobi and clan duties to occupy their time and attention.

And Naruto…That genjutsu-induced romance was done and over with. And with it, the hopes and dreams for the future that she uselessly held on to for many years.

As for her...

She can no longer afford to keep looking back and continue wishing for things that are beyond her control. Not now when she has many problems ahead of her.

Without any time travel jutsu, (as confirmed by the genius future Nidaime himself), every day that passed, it’s becoming more and more apparent that she’ll be spending the rest of her days in the early years of the Hidden Leaf Village along with its founding fathers.

That means heightened danger with so many perilous situations to navigate and so many potential enemies to fight.

First, with the end of hostilities between the Senju and the Uchiha so recent and the deaths of their family and friends still so fresh in everyone’s minds, anyone could attack and kill anyone in the name of vengeance for their fallen.

In addition, all the other clans that would soon join Konoha would, without a doubt, be suspicious of each other. With former enemies living in such close proximity, there’s a huge possibility of fights breaking out in the future among those still holding on to hatred and grudges.

Finally, there’s the looming problem that is the Hyuuga Clan. Sooner or later, her ancestors would be joining the fold and when they found out about her, that she has the byakugan, they would no doubt immediately view her as a threat.

With her an unknown entity to them, they’ll either think her a bloodline thief to be eliminated or, if they’re somehow convinced of her being a Hyuuga, they’ll have her sealed and/or married off so she’d be under the council’s control.

All three were equally dreadful fates and she’d like to avoid all of them as much as possible. She had already lost her family, her friends, her home—almost everything that mattered. She’ll not have someone take away her freedom too, especially not the Hyuuga clan where the Branch members were treated no better than slaves.

Ironic as it was, the only people who could help were the Uchiha and Senju brother pairs who were practically strangers to her. But even they she couldn’t afford to rely on.

Madara and Izuna have their own clan and many more worries to mind now that peace talks were in motion.

The Senjus brothers were the same. Hashirama seemed friendly and sympathetic enough and expressed willingness to help in whatever way he could but he’s also bogged down by duties to his clan and all the changes that are happening. Soon, with his mokuton, his work would increase even more once the village starts to rise up. All that wood release would certainly be necessary in constructing buildings and many more village structures.

And Tobirama, though intrigued to figure out the puzzle that is her situation, was not only in the same boat as his older brother. He was also wary of her connection with Madara and Izuna. A reasonable reaction, considering what she knew of the man and his fraught relationship with the Uchiha.

So she’s alone, here, in this timeline, without anyone to really fully trust or turn to during her time of need. No Hanabi to brighten her days or share her troubles with. No Kiba and Shino to boost her confidence or help her get out of any danger or difficult situations. No Kurenai-sensei to give her words of advice when she’s in doubt.

No more hesitation. No more holding back. She’ll have to become stronger than ever before. She needed to train and be prepared to face whatever challenges were thrown her way. Be it the Hyuuga Clan or otherwise.

* * *

Yawning wide and rolling his shoulders and neck, Madara approached the courtyard which also served as the personal training ground for both he and his brother with silent steps.

It’s still dark out with about two hours remaining before dawn and already, he’d been roused from his sleep when he felt the Hyuuga’s strange second chakra surge before becoming steady.

Upon nearing the area, he immediately saw that she’s having a taijutsu spar with two of the special clones she created during her escape attempt. Visually identical and each possessing considerable chakra, he found it impossible to distinguish which was the original and which were mere clones. They also looked durable enough to withstand light skin to skin contact and hits.

It was a surprise. He’s never seen the woman do any training in the past. Only Izuna had the pleasure of engaging her in a taijutsu fight. This would be the first time he’s going to witness her do so.

During her captivity, all she did was visit the gardens and read during the times spent in his presence. After she healed Izuna and her status changed from captive to guest, she spent the following days teaching and sharing her medical knowledge to the clan healers and making medicines and all kinds of ointments.

He figured the sudden change must be due to the disastrous episode the day before. When the bastard Senju Tobirama bluntly informed her that with the changes made, the future she came from would no longer be the same. Perhaps even gone.

Even without their byakugan active, all three’s lavender-gray eyes looked fierce and they moved—no, they _flowed_ like water. The footwork and the striking speed of the hands light but swift that it looked like they were in a choreographed dance.

He’s aware of the Hyuuga clan’s renown when it came to taijutsu. How many called their Juuken as the pinnacle of hand to hand combat due to the internal damage they inflict upon their enemies and their capacity to shut down the chakra pathway system, making them incapable of performing jutsus.

Despite the strong rivalry that existed between their clans in account of their doujutsus, he’s never personally fought a Hyuuga before and he’s very much curious to fight one now and see what Izuna talked about.

“Why don’t you get rid of your clones and spar with me?” he challenged while taking the last remaining steps and entering the sparring ring.

* * *

Hinata finally stopped sparring with her clones and, with a guarded expression, turned to the Uchiha Clan Head upon hearing his words.

A spar with Uchiha Madara? Now, wasn’t that a real challenge!

But she felt torn.

On the one hand, she felt afraid she might be biting more than she could chew. She hasn’t forgotten that the man was the main enemy during the Fourth Shinobi World War. He may not have the rinnegan right now but he’s still the same Uchiha Madara, the only person who could rival the first Hokage. She might just get overwhelmed by his prodigious strength and skill in battle and get squashed like one of Shino’s bugs.

On the other, she felt a bit excited. With the goal of getting stronger she had in mind, she knew that testing her skill against someone like him would be greatly beneficial. Yes, she could rely on her clone for spars but her progress, she’s certain, would be slower than if she trained with someone stronger than her.

Taking a deep breath, she dispersed her clone and reluctantly nodded her head in acceptance of his dare, all the while mentally hoping that she’d survive and learn from the experience.

“An all-Taijutsu fight. Chakra and doujutsus permitted but no weaponry,” Madara stated upon standing in front of her.

“Alright,” Hinata nodded her head once more in agreement. She then activated her byakugan before sliding a foot forward to assume her preferred fighting stance.

* * *

With his sharingan, Madara saw the chakra stream his opponent released after a high-speed palm thrust and moved to dodge it, only to feel his right arm ache after being grazed by what was actually a tremendous force. Mentally, he admitted that he should not have underestimated the power and the reach of her chakra attack.

Skidding to a halt, he opened and closed the hand attached to the pained arm to test its usefulness while at the same time looking at his sparring partner who was warily looking back at him from a few meters away.

“Crafty aren’t you?” he asked then grinned with pleasure when he took note of her sweating and panting form. His arm may be out of commission for a while but it’s very clear he’s won the fight.

Izuna was right though. Hyuuga Hinata was formidable—he’d give her that. She had great skills that could defeat many an Uchiha in a close range fight.

She may not be a match for his battle instinct, speed and reaction time but her perception, chakra control, striking speed and Gentle Fist style were all solid enough that even he had to use his sharingan. The ways she manipulated her chakra for bodily defense were also some of the best he’s seen so far from someone who’s specialized in taijutsu.

He found out to his own peril earlier that her hands and feet weren’t the only ones dangerous at close quarters, her entire body was. Not only could she expel chakra from her fingertips, she could also do it from any point of her body.

To add to that, she had great chakra reserves and could also apparently blast a stream of chakra using her palms at mid-range and do it in several quick successions too, as she had just displayed—an important fact he’ll keep in mind if ever he had to fight another Hyuuga.

“I can…I can heal your arm, if you want,” she offered cautiously with her breathing still a bit labored.

“Hn. Let’s take a break. You look like you need one badly,” he teased with a smirk. One that went wider when he saw her lips purse.

“I can still go on,” she insisted with a faint but decidedly stubborn expression on her face.

Madara huffed and rolled his eyes. “It’s been two hours, Princess, and it’s about time for breakfast. Also, I have many duties to attend to. As you well know, this making peace business needs much effort and careful attention. If you want more, you’ll have to wait until before or after dinner. Or you could ask Izuna or Hikaku.”

When he saw her shoulders fall a bit, he asked, “What’s with this sudden fervor for training anyway? You’ve been with us for weeks now but never saw the need to train before.”

“Nothing,” she immediately responded with an awkward shrug which easily gave away her lie, making Madara snort.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re shit at lying?” he asked with an amused smile. A good fighter she maybe but what a struggle it must’ve been for her to be a Hyuuga and a kunoichi with her much too kind and honest personality. She’s worse than Hashirama—she practically wore her heart out on her sleeves.

“Many times,” she admitted with a sigh. She then pointed at his arm with a raised brow. With another huff Madara extended said arm and watched with interest as she jabbed several points on his arm before her hands glowed green with healing chakra.

“Hashirama is thinking of inviting the Hyuuga Clan to join,” he told her after a while. “You know what will happen when they find out about you living amongst us, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she said, voice whisper soft, before her mouth pressed into a thin line.

“Why don’t you want to go back to them?” he asked then demanded, “Answer me honestly, Princess. I think I deserve it. As Clan Head of the Uchiha, it’ll be me who’s going to have to face them and answer some annoying questions.”

When she remained silent and simply continued to heal his arm, he quickly moved his working arm and with his fingers, lifted her chin up.

“If you want to remain under my protection, Princess, then you will answer my question,” he stated, dark eyes looking down at her intently. “What issues do you have with the Hyuuga that you would rather seek asylum in my clan?”

She took a deep breath before speaking. “What do you know about the Hyuuga?”

Madara’s eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed as he recalled everything he knew about the Hyuuga. They’re a bunch of paranoid folks who were also secretive as fuck that they even came up with a seal to protect their eyes.

Curiously enough, the seal was only applied to members of their Branch House so he didn’t really see the point. What if a Main House member was taken by their enemy? How then would their eyes be protected if they’re not branded with the same seal? Or could the seal have another hidden purpose? There were, after all, unconfirmed rumors of the Branch House also serving the Main House.

“Does your reluctance to return to them have something to do with the Main and Branch House division? And the seal?” he asked her with piercing eyes.

“You are correct. And yes, I don’t want to return to the Hyuuga for that very same reason,” she admitted softly. “I know how the clan works, especially its Main House and the council of elders. They’ll see my eyes and think it is property that belongs to them. They’ll either move to have it destroyed or, if they’re made to believe I am indeed a Hyuuga, they’ll have me either sealed and/or married off.”

But of course! How could he have forgotten the cursed fate that is the life of most noble women?

Madara let the hand holding her chin fall and stared at his healer with new eyes.

The Uchiha, though known for marrying within the clan to ensure their children would have more chances of manifesting the sharingan, was more lax when it came to marriages. They had no laws when it came to love and choosing life partners. The heart wants what it wants after all and only a fool would try to rein it in with stupid, rigid rules that were sure to cause complications and make their lives utterly miserable.

But that was not the case with the world outside of their territory. With most of the other clans, arranged marriages were the norm. The Hyuuga, he was certain, practiced the same.

With the Hyuuga’s known almost tyrannical treatment of their women, Hinata most likely wouldn’t be allowed to continue her kunoichi status. Not only that, she might even be prevented from teaching and healing others not of Hyuuga blood.

With her questionable background but considerable power and strength and skills and delicate, almost haunting beauty, they’ll rein her in and make her bend to their rules and just like she said, they’ll arrange for her to be married once they got their filthy hands on her

How long before she’s wed to some controlling, balding geezer with rotting teeth who wouldn’t hesitate to raise a hand if she stepped out of line with her future sensibilities? Or a man her age who would put her in a small box and treat her as nothing but a broodmare and a warm body to bed at night?

Thoughts of her possible futures with the Hyuuga caused his hackles to rise and his blood to boil. All scenarios were unacceptable, disgusting even, for a soul as good and kind as her.

“Very well,” he said with a hardened expression on his face. “We could formally arrange it so that your clan won’t be able to get their hands on you. Before they could make any claim, we could come up with a blood contract which would allow you to stay with my clan and under my protection. We can even have Hashirama sign it as a witness. I’m sure the idiot wouldn’t hesitate to support your decision.”

The freedom to make her own choices, a place in his clan and his protection—they’re the least he could offer to repay her for teaching and helping his clan healers and saving his last remaining brother.


	11. Complicated Affairs

“Wait!” Izuna interrupted, planting a hand on top of the mission report Madara was trying to read. “So you’re adopting her? She’ll be an Uchiha?”

Madara scowled and slapped away the offending hand before responding. “No. All I did was to suggest we make my offer of protection a formal one through a contract.”

“You really think a bloody contract is enough to stop a paranoid clan as the Hyuuga?” Izuna scoffed in disbelief. “You might as well just marry her and give her our name to ensure they’ll not have any chance.”

Madara dropped the scroll he was holding and gave his brother a sharp look. “Did you not hear me earlier? The reason Hinata refuses to return to her clan is because she wants to avoid being given the seal and being forced into marriage. Now you’re telling me to do the same?”

“Nii-san, you do understand the plight of the women of our time, don’t you? Especially those from clans with bloodline limits?”

Madara huffed. Of course he knew. He’s witnessed plenty of times how women were treated mostly as nothing but pawns and broodmares to strengthen and increase the influence of their families or clans.

“So long as Hinata remains unwed and carries the Hyuuga name and the byakugan, she’ll always be theirs. No blood contract will change that. A marriage to one of power, prestige and position like yours is the only way and even then it might still involve trouble,” Izuna pointed out calmly.

“The Hyuuga are arrogant but surely they aren’t stupid. They wouldn’t dare move against me. Especially not if Hashirama gives his support.”

Izuna gave him a cynical look. “I get that you trust Hashirama. How about his sly bastard of a brother? Remember Tobirama now knows Hinata is from the future. What if he secretly works with the Hyuuga? What if the Hyuuga Clan asks for her return as one of their terms in exchange for joining the village we’re all trying to create?”

“This peace is Hashirama’s most fervent dream. Tobirama will not do anything to jeopardize it,” Madara reasoned. His voice came out sure and even but mentally, he agreed that his younger brother did have a point. Peace may now be in the works but that didn’t mean that clans wouldn’t try to grab any advantage they could put their hands on.

“So you say,” his younger brother said, still looking unconvinced. “Nii-san, you’re already twenty-three. The elders are getting concerned. When do you plan on getting a Lady Uchiha and start making heirs?”

“Whenever I want, dammit!” Madara retorted, feeling his irritation start to rise at being reminded of the annoying concern the clan elders have been pestering him about as of late.

He’s Uchiha Madara, for heaven’s sake. He’ll not let anyone pressure him or treat him like some kind of a stud to be married off and used to breed some woman just because he needed heirs.

He wanted what his father had with his mother. He wanted someone who’ll not only make a worthy Uchiha Matriarch and mother to his heirs but one who would also give him passion—fire. Someone who’ll make him burn.

“And when would that be?” Izuna challenged, arching his brow. “At eighteen or twenty, you should’ve already gotten a wife and should have already fathered a child or two by now. But so far, no woman has caught your interest. Not until our dear Hinata-hime, that is.”

“I am not—“

“Deny it and I’ll call you a liar!” Izuna cut him off once more, making his irritation mount even more. “I am not blind. I, too, have the sharingan and can see everything just fine with my own two eyes. Not only do you find her beautiful and desirable, you also admire and like her qualities—her kindness and goodness. You want her.”

Madara took calming breaths.

It’s true. He did like Hyuuga Hinata. Not only did she possess the qualities of an ideal matriarch for a clan like the Uchiha, she was also a strong kunoichi in her own right. Her unique and potent chakra as well as their spar has proven this.

That same spar has also demonstrated just how strongly attracted and responsive his body was to hers. Her soulful eyes which turned fierce when she activated her byakugan had made his blood rise. Her alluring scent and the sight of the silvery sweat that dripped from her temples down to her chin left his mouth feeling parched. Her soft, white as milk skin made his tongue and incisors tingle with the want to lick and bite and leave marks.

And the enticing ways her body moved! The beautiful arch of her spine and long neck, the strong but graceful stretch of her arms and legs underneath her clothes—all captured and stored into memory by his sharingan. Even the thought of her deadly fingers touching his skin excited him. And her _flexibility_. Dear gods!

Had she been any other woman, he most likely would’ve already propositioned or seduced her to his bed. But he refrained from doing so for important reasons.

For one, Hinata was far too innocent. It’s clear she’s a maiden. Untouched by any man. He didn’t want his base desires to be the ruin of such purity, especially not when he held her in high esteem for what she’s done for his brother and his clan.

Next, she’s made it clear that she didn’t want to marry and he’s already given his promise of protection. He has no plans of going back on his words.

And the last, weightiest reason? Her situation brought a lot of complications. The Hyuuga Clan and her bloodline limit aside, there’s also the time-traveling situation to consider. Who in their right mind would marry and have children with someone who could just disappear without a trace one day, never to return?

“Izuna, I only care about her safety because she saved you. And what does it matter if I do like some of her qualities? It won’t change the fact that she’s a Hyuuga. She has the byakugan. What if her blood overpowers mine and our children don’t manifest the sharingan? What would become of the Uchiha line of succession?”

“Seriously?” Izuna snorted and waved a hand dismissively. “Uchiha blood clearly runs strongest in your veins. I say it’s got more chances of overpowering hers. With her bloodline and strong chakra, any child you’ll have is guaranteed to be strong. They might even have an entirely new, even more powerful doujutsu. Are you not in the least bit intrigued of the many possibilities?”

Madara heaved a sigh, feeling a headache starting to form. “Of course it’s intriguing. But it’s a huge risk, Izuna—one that will have long term repercussions and as I pointed out earlier, Hinata doesn’t want to marry.”

“There’s a difference between not wanting to marry and not wanting to be married off to—a choice. One that might be forcibly taken from her once the Hyuugas find out of her existence. I think you should speak with her more,” Izuna responded, clearly dismissing his concern about blood lines and the consequences of mixing blood.

“Why are you pushing this topic anyway? You’ve never pressed the issue of marriage and heirs with me before,” Madara grumbled while pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

“You’re not getting any younger, Nii-san. You’re physically aging real fast. You already look like you’re in your thirties. Who knows what you’ll look like in the next five years? I just don’t want your children to suffer having a really old man as their father,” Izuna said with a snicker, prompting Madara to scowl and throw a scroll with deadly accuracy at his brother’s face only for the younger man to deftly dodge it with an irritating laugh.

“And what about you brother?” he retorted. “I seem to recall you always taking the chance to flirt with her. Why not offer to marry her yourself instead?”

“Because I know you can either be dense or an emotionally constipated bastard at times, so I’m giving you the chance to figure things out,” Izuna responded with a shrug, lips curled up into an infuriating smirk before standing up and leaving the aggravated Clan Head alone in his study.

* * *

It has been decided that, for the sake of fostering trust and solidarity amongst previously warring clans, the many rounds of peace negotiations and planning for the village soon to rise would be conducted in different clan territories.

The first was conducted at the Senju Clan’s territory and now it’s Madara’s turn to play host.

The peace efforts have gathered momentum and now involved major clans such as the Aburame, Akimichi, Inuzuka, Nara and Yamanaka and other minor clans like the Hatake, Kurama and Shimura. Each clan was represented by their respective heads along with two or more guards, leading to the Uchiha Main House becoming almost filled to the brim.

To Hinata’s relief, the Hyuuga has not yet sent an envoy to join any of the talks and thus she was free to move about the compound. It also allowed for a private dialogue with Senju Hashirama regarding Madara’s proposed blood contract. But to her consternation, both Izuna and Senju Tobirama insisted to be included in the discussion. And because neither one of them would be deterred, she was put in the painfully uncomfortable position of airing out her problems to more people than she would’ve liked.

“Hm…I’d be glad to throw my support behind your decision Hinata-chan. I can call you Hinata-chan, right?” the future Hokage asked then continued after she gave him a nod. “I just want to understand. You clearly are a Hyuuga. This contract of asylum and protection from Madara and the Uchiha Clan will certainly cause complications in the near future. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for you to return to your clan?”

“I…” Hinata trailed off and swallowed awkwardly. She truly didn’t want to bother people with her concerns but she’s left with no other choice now.

It’s all messed up. She’s already done too much. Changed too much. She could no longer predict just what the short-term and long-term repercussions her actions would have and how they’ll impact the future and it’s practically an act of betrayal against her clan but they must know. Senju Hashirama and Madara should know the truth behind the Branch House seal. They’re the founders of Konoha and the leading figures of all the negotiations taking place. Perhaps they could do something about it. She hoped, at least.

“You know of the Hyuuga’s Main and Branch Houses, don’t you?” she asked the Senju Clan Head.

“Yes. But I’m afraid I don’t fully understand the situation. As far as I know, due to both having doujutsu-based bloodline, the Uchiha and Hyuuga have been unspoken rivals for so long. What exactly is your issue with your clan that you would rather seek protection from the Uchiha? ” Hashirama inquired, his expression that of someone genuinely wanting to know more to better understand the situation. It’s a look that made her feel more at ease.

“The Cursed Seal—it’s not just a means to protect the byakugan from being stolen. It’s also a tool of subjugation that takes away the will of its bearer. It’s meant to…It’s used to keep the Branch House under the control of the Main House. To punish them and sometimes even kill them,” Hinata divulged quietly, chest feeling heavy with the memories of her Uncle Hizashi and Neji and the rest of her family who, for so long, have suffered under the Main House and the cursed seal branded upon their brows.

The information she shared garnered almost similar reactions. The Senju Head’s previously friendly face turned grim with every word she spoke. Tobirama’s impressive jaws clenched and unclenched. Both Madara and Izuna’s handsome faces turned dark complete with grimaces.

“Oh…How horrible indeed,” Hashirama murmured before reaching for his cup of tea and taking a long sip.

“It’s not just horrible, it’s fucked up!” Madara remarked harshly before turning to stare at her with intense, narrowed eyes. “You didn’t tell me the seal was for subjugation or that it can be used to kill its bearer,” he bit out harshly after a while.

“Now, now. Don’t be harsh Madara, I’m sure Hinata-chan has a reason for doing so,” Hashirama calmly reasoned out with a wave of his hand.

The Uchiha Clan Head ignored the words of his friend and rival, his dark orbs remained pinned on her. There’s something in the look in his eyes. Something Hinata couldn’t put her fingers on that for some strange reason caused her heart to beat faster.

She cleared her suddenly parched throat before addressing the unspoken accusation. “Details regarding the curse seal are not really something members of the Hyuuga share with those outside of the clan. I’m almost sure it’s considered an act of treason to divulge such information during this time period.”

She watched a bit engrossed as the severe look on his face disappeared to be replaced with a softer, more understanding one. His eyes though remained intense and intent on her.

“You don’t have the seal so you’re clearly from the Main House,” Tobirama spoke next, making Hinata turn her gaze from Madara to the younger Senju. “What exactly is your position in the Hyuuga Clan of your time?”

“I am firstborn daughter of the Clan Head,” she reluctantly shared, causing the males to perk up in their seats.

“You’re an heiress then?” Tobirama asked with piercing red eyes.

“By birthright, yes, but it was never made official.”

“Why not?” the Uchiha brothers asked at the same time, both looking baffled.

“Another fucked up Hyuuga issue?” Madara followed up with a scowl.

“I am…I was deemed unfit to lead the clan,” she said softly, a feeling of shame rolling in the pit of her stomach. It’s been many years and she has already conceded that her best just wasn’t good enough, has accepted that Hanabi would make a better Head someday. But it still smarted. It still stung whenever she thought of it.

“Even still, that doesn’t take the fact that you’re from the Main House. Should that not help with your situation?” Hashirama asked, the look on his face turned more optimistic.

Hinata shook her head. “No, Hashirama-sama. My being firstborn of a future clan head won’t help change things. Power in the House of Hyuuga lies in the hands of the Council of Elders who are all from the Main House. The clan head and their immediate family members are, by all rights, just puppets of the Main House. If you don’t know yet, the younger children of the head family are also branded—so the Elders have control. The clan leader is only allowed to make decisions approved by the council,” she truthfully disclosed in an even tone while her hands curled into fists on her lap.

“Tch!” Izuna scoffed, his face twisted in disgust. “Almost all clan politics are normally complicated but I didn’t know Hyuuga politics and power plays could be this dirty and twisted.”

“That cursed seal,” Madara grumbled. “It’s far too powerful a tool. I must say the Hyuuga have outdone themselves when they created and implemented it. Though for how long can they keep it? The hatred and resentment of the Branch must be reaching boiling levels by now.”

“It seems to me the Main House is quite successful in making use of it. After all, the practice still exists even in the future Hinata came from,” the younger Uchiha stated.

“Alright Hinata-chan, you have my full support,” Hashirama declared. Then, with a look of fierce determination so like Naruto’s plastered on his face, he continued, “We should also do something about that cursed seal. Perhaps we can discuss and have it addressed during the negotiations when the Hyuuga finally decide to join us?”

“It’s not going to be easy, Anija,” Tobirama spoke out, “Have you forgotten? All the clans already joining the peace talks are demanding that non-interference on clan matters be one of the foundational laws to ensure the village leadership is kept from overreaching. The Hyuuga, without a doubt, will do the same and justify the use of the seal as part of keeping their techniques secret and their bloodline limit safe.”

Hashirama's shoulders slumped. “I don’t feel good thinking of that seal becoming part of the village," he muttered, visibly upset.

“We might not have a choice but to be careful and wait things out,” Tobirama responded bluntly. “If we act blatantly and try to interfere with the Hyuuga’s curse seal, the other clans might see it as nothing but the beginning of deliberate attempts to wrestle control on our part. That might lead to complications that could blow up in our faces and impede the plans of forming a village.”

Hinata closed her eyes and lowered her head.

She felt disappointed but…What Tobirama said—she expected as much. She knew that the issue of the curse seal was a complicated one and something that could not be resolved immediately. She’ll have to extend her patience. Plans of abolishing the seal would have to wait. The Hyuuga must be part of the village first.


End file.
